• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.24-28
• /
• 2007

The etching of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films has been studied using a high density plasma in a $Cl_2/Ar$ gas. The etch characteristics of ZnO thin films were systematically investigated on varying $Cl_2$ concentration, coil rf power, dc-bias voltage, and gas pressure. With increasing $Cl_2$ concentration, the etch rate of ZnO thin film increased, the redeposition around the etched patterns decreased but the sidewall slope of the etched patterns slanted. As the coil rf power and dc-bias voltage increased, the etch rates of ZnO thin films increased and etch profiles of ZnO thin films were improved. With increasing gas pressure, the etch rate of ZnO thin films slightly increased but little change in etch profile was observed. Based on these results, the optimal etching conditions of ZnO thin film were selected. Finally, the etching of ZnO thin films with a high degree of anisotropy of approximately $75^{\circ}{\sim}80^{\circ}$ without the redepositions and residues was successfully achieved at the etching conditions of 20% $Cl_2$ concentration, coil rf power of 1000 W, dc-bias voltage of 400 V, and gas pressure of 5 mTorr.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.37 no.11
• /
• pp.18-24
• /
• 2000

(Ba,Sr)$TiO_3$ thin films have attracted great interest as new dielectric materials of capacitors for ultra-large-scale integrated dynamic random access memories (ULSI-DRAMs) such as 1 Gbit or 4 Gbit. In this study, inductively coupled $BCl_3/Cl_2/Ar$ plasmas was used to etch (Ba,Sr)$TiO_3$ thin films. RF power/dc bias voltage=600 W/-250 V and chamber pressure was 10 mTorr. The $Cl_2/(Cl_2+Ar)$ was fixed at 0.2 the (Ba,Sr)$TiO_3$ thin films were etched adding $BCl_3$. The highest (Ba,Sr)$TiO_3$ etch rate is $480{\AA}/min$ at 10 % $BCl_3$ to $Cl_2/Ar$. The change of Cl, B radical density measured by optical emission spectroscopy(OES) as a function of $BCl_3$ percentage in $Cl_2/Ar$. The highest Cl radical density was shown at the addition of 10% $BCl_3$ to $Cl_2/Ar$. To study on the surface reaction of (Ba, Sr)$TiO_3$ thin films was investigated by XPS analysis. Ion bombardment etching is necessary to break Ba-O bond and to remove $BaCl_2$. There is a little chemical reaction between Sr and Cl, but Sr is removed by physical sputtering. There is a chemical reaction between Ti and Cl, and $TiCl_4$ is removed with ease. The cross-sectional of (Ba,Sr)$TiO_3$ thin film was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the etch slope is about 65~70$^{\circ}$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
• /
• v.34D no.3
• /
• pp.87-92
• /
• 1997

Inductively coupled Cl$_{2}$ plasma has been studied to etch Pt thin films, which hardly form volatile compound with any reactive gas at normal process temperature. Low etch rate and residue problems are frequently observed. For higher etch rate, high density plasma and higher process temperature is adopted observed. For higher etch rate, high density plasma and higher process temperature is adopted and thus SiO$_{2}$ is used as for patterning mask instead of photoresist. The effect of O$_{2}$ or Ar addition to Cl$_{2}$ was investigated, and the chamber pressure, gas flow rate, surce RF power and bias RF power are also varied to check their effects on etch rate and selectivity. The major etching mechanism is the physical sputtering, but the ion assisted chemical raction is also found to be a big factor. The proposs can be optimized to obtain the etch rate of Pt up to 200nm/min and selectivity to SiO$_{2}$ at 2.0 or more. Patterning of submicron Pt lines are successfully demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2000.04b
• /
• pp.56-59
• /
• 2000

In this study, Ferroelectric $Pb(Zr_x,Ti_{1-x})O_3$(x=0.53) thin films were fabricated by the spin-coating on the Pt/Ti/$SiO_2$/Si substrate using the PZT metal alkoxide solutions with various excess Pb contents. Etching of PZT film was performed using planar inductively coupled Ar(20)$/Cl_2/BCl_3$ plasma. The etch rate of PZT film was 2450 ${\AA}/min$ at Ar(20)$/BCl_3$(80) gas mixing ratio and substrate temperature of $80^{\circ}C$. The leakage current densities of before etching and after etching PZT thin film were $6.25\times10^{-8}A/cm^2$, $8.74\times10^{-7}A/cm^2$ with electric field of 0.07MV/em, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 1999.07a
• /
• pp.223-223
• /
• 1999

PZT(PbZr1-xTixO3) 박막은 고유전율과 같은 remanent polarization을 가져서 고집적 소자의 커패시터 유전율층 또는 비휘발성 메모리 소자의 제조에 이용되고 있으나, fatigue 와 aging 문제로 인하여 새로운 물질의 개발이 필요한데, 그 대표적으로 연구되고 있는 것이 PMN-PT(Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-PbTiO3) 이다. 본 실험에서는 sol-gel 법에 의하여 제조된 PMN-PT막을 ICP(Inductively coupled plasma)에 의하여 식각하였고 mask층으로는 PR을 사용하였다. 식각 가스로는 Ar, Cl, BCl를 단독 또는 혼합하여 사용하였으며, 식각 특성을 보기 위하여 RF Power, Substrate bias, Operation pressure, Substrate temperature를 변화시켰다. 식각속도는 stylus profiler를 이용하여 측정하였고, 단면 profile은 scanning electron microscopy (SEM)를 이용하여 관찰하였다. 식각 메커니즘을 규명하고자 식각된 박막의 표면을 X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)로 관찰하였고, optical emission spectroscopy (OES)로 플라즈마 특성을 규명하고자 하였다. 식각속도는 Ar 또는 Cl2 플라즈마에 BCl3 가스를 혼합하였을 경우 증가되었고, BCl3 가스를 단독으로 사용하여도 높은 식각속도를 나타내었으며, BCl3의 첨가량이 늘어날수록 PR의 식각속도는 감소하여 높은 선택비를 보였다. 90% BCl3/10%Cl2 플라즈마에서 2800$\AA$/min의 식각속도 그리고 1.37:1의 PR 선택비를 얻을 수 있었다. Power나 기판 bias 증가에 따라 식각속도는 증가하였으나 기판 온도변화에는 민감하지 않았다. BCl3 rich에서의 식각속도 증가와 선택비 증가는 B2O3의 형성에 의한 것으로 생각된다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.08a
• /
• pp.124-124
• /
• 2010

Currently, extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is being investigated for next generation lithography. EUVL is one of competitive lithographic technologies for sub-22nm fabrication of nano-scale Si devices that can possibly replace the conventional photolithography used to make today's microcircuits. Among the core EUVL technologies, mask fabrication is of considerable importance due to the use of new reflective optics having a completely different configuration compared to those of conventional photolithography. Therefore, new materials and new mask fabrication process are required for high performance EUVL mask fabrication. This study investigated the etching properties of SnO2 (Tin Oxide) as a new absorber material for EUVL binary mask. The EUVL mask structure used for etching is SnO2 (absorber layer) / Ru (capping / etch stop layer) / Mo-Si multilayer (reflective layer) / Si (substrate). Since the Ru etch stop layer should not be etched, infinitely high selectivity of SnO2 layer to Ru ESL is required. To obtain infinitely high etch selectivity and very low LER (line edge roughness) values, etch parameters of gas flow ratio, top electrode power, dc self - bias voltage (Vdc), and etch time were varied in inductively coupled Cl2/Ar plasmas. For certain process window, infinitely high etch selectivity of SnO2 to Ru ESL could be obtained by optimizing the process parameters. Etch characteristics were measured by on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. Detailed mechanisms for ultra-high etch selectivity will be discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2000.07a
• /
• pp.39-42
• /
• 2000

The effect of excess Pb contents on the etching of PZT thin films and their electrical properties has been investigated. Ferroelectric PZT(53/47) thin films were prepared by the metal alkoxide-based Sol-Gel method, in which they were spin-coating on P7Ti/Si02/Si substrate using the PZT(53/47) stock solutions with various excess Pb contents. Etching of PZT film was performed using planar inductively coupled Ar/Cl$_2$/BCl$_3$ plasma. The etch rate of PZT film was 2450 $\AA$/min at Ar(20)/BCl$_3$(80) gas mixing ratio and substrate temperature of 8$0^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.105-105
• /
• 2009

$ZrO_2$ is one of the most attractive high dielectric constant (high-k) materials. As integrated circuit device dimensions continue to be scaled down, high-k materials have been studied more to resolve the problems for replacing the EY31conventional $SiO_2$. $ZrO_2$ has many favorable properties as a high dielectric constant (k= 20~25), wide band gap (5~7 eV) as well as a close thermal expansion coefficient with Si that results in good thermal stability of the $ZrO_2/Si$ structure. In order to get fine-line patterns, plasma etching has been studied more in the fabrication of ultra large-scale integrated circuits. The relation between the etch characteristics of high-k dielectric materials and plasma properties is required to be studied more to match standard processing procedure with low damaged removal process. Due to the easy control of ion energy and flux, low ownership and simple structure of the inductively coupled plasma (ICP), we chose it for high-density plasma in our study. And the $BCl_3$ included in the gas due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of $BCl_xO_y$ compound In this study, the surface kinetic properties of $ZrO_2$ thin film was investigated in function of Ch addition to $BCl_3/Ar$ gas mixture ratio, RF power and DC-bias power based on substrate temperature. The figure 1 showed the etch rate of $ZrO_2$ thin film as function of gas mixing ratio of $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ dependent on temperature. The chemical state of film was investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The characteristics of the plasma were estimated using optical emission spectroscopy (OES). Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used for elemental analysis of etched surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2002.08a
• /
• pp.138-141
• /
• 2002

The channel of the superconducting Flux Flow Transistor has been fabricated with plasma etching method using ICP. The ICP conditions were 700 W of ICP power, 150 W of rf chuck power, 5 mTorr of the pressure in chamber and 1:1 of Ar : $Cl_2$, respectively. The channel etched by plasma gas showed superconducting characteristics of over 77 K and superior surface morphology. The critical current of SFFT was altered by varying the external applied current. As the external applied current increased from 0 to 12 mA, the critical current decreased from 28 to 22 mA. Then the obtained $r_m$ values were smaller than $0.1\Omega$ at a bias current of 40 mA. The current gain was about 0.5. Output resistance was below $0.2\Omega$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.174-174
• /
• 2010

In this article, the dry etching mechanism of ZnO thin films in $N_2/Cl_2$/Ar gas chemistry was investigated. The ZnO thin films were deposited on Si substrate using Atomic layer deposition. The etching experiments were performed by inductively coupled plasma system. The maximum etch rate was104.5 nm/min and the highest selectivity of ZnO over $SiO_2$ was 3.3. Etching rate was measured by surface profiler. And the chemical reaction on the surface of the etched ZnO thin films was investigated by x-ray photo electrons pectroscopy. As a result of XPS, $Zn2p_{3/2}$ peak shifted toward a higher binding energy and the O-O and N-O bond were obtained from the sample of ZnO thin film which after plasma treatment.