Etching Characteristics of Polyctystalline 3C-SiC Thin Films by Magnetron Reactive Ion Etching

마그네트론 RIE를 이용한 다결정 3C-SiC의 식각 특성

Surface micromachined SiC devices have readily been fabricated from the polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC thin film which has an advantage of being deposited onto $SiO_2$ or $Si_3N_4$ as a sacrificial layer. Therefore, in this work, magnetron reactive ion etching process which can stably etch poly 3C-SiC thin films grown on $SiO_2$/Si substrate at a lower energy (70 W) with $CHF_3$ based gas mixtures has been studied. We have investigated the etching properties of the poly 3C-SiC thin film using PR/Al mask, according to $O_2$ flow rate, pressure, RF power, and electrode gap. The etched RMS (root mean square), etch rate, and etch profile of the poly 3C-SiC thin films were analyzed by SEM, AFM, and $\alpha$-step.