• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.210-210
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• 2011

The effects of CH2F2 and N2 gas flow rates on the etch selectivity of silicon nitride (Si3N4) layers to extreme ultra-violet (EUV) resist and the variation of the line edge roughness (LER) of the EUV resist and Si3N4 pattern were investigated during etching of a Si3N4/EUV resist structure in dual-frequency superimposed CH2F2/N2/Ar capacitive coupled plasmas (DFS-CCP). The flow rates of CH2F2 and N2 gases played a critical role in determining the process window for ultra-high etch selectivity of Si3N4/EUV resist due to disproportionate changes in the degree of polymerization on the Si3N4 and EUV resist surfaces. Increasing the CH2F2 flow rate resulted in a smaller steady state CHxFy thickness on the Si3N4 and, in turn, enhanced the Si3N4 etch rate due to enhanced SiF4 formation, while a CHxFy layer was deposited on the EUV resist surface protecting the resist under certain N2 flow conditions. The LER values of the etched resist tended to increase at higher CH2F2 flow rates compared to the lower CH2F2 flow rates that resulted from the increased degree of polymerization.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.288-295
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• 2009

We report the etch characteristics of GaAs and AlGaAs in the diffusion pump-based capacitively coupled $BCl_3$ plasma. Process variables were chamber pressure ($50{\sim}180$ mTorr), CCP power ($50{\sim}200\;W$) and $BCl_3$ gas flow rate ($2.5{\sim}10$ sccm). Surface profilometry was used for etch rate and surface roughness measurement after etching. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analyze the etched sidewall and surface morphology. Optical emission spectroscopy was used in order to characterize the emission peaks of the $BCl_3$ plasma during etching. We have achieved $0.25{\mu}m$/min of GaAs etch rate with only 5 sccm $BCl_3$ flow rate when the chamber pressure was in the range of 50{\sim}130 mTorr. The etch rates of AlGaAs were a little lower than those of GaAs at the conditions. However, the etch rates of GaAs and AlGaAs decreased significantly when the chamber pressure increased to 180 mTorr. GaAs and AlGaAs were not etched with 50 W CCP power. With $100{\sim}200\;W$ CCP power, etch rates of the materials increased over $0.3{\mu}m$/min. It was found that the etch rates of GaAs and AlGaAs were not always proportional to the increase of CCP power. We also found the interesting result that AlGaAs did not etched at 2.5 sccm $BCl_3$ flow rate at 75 mTorr and 100 W CCP power even though it was etched fast like GaAs with more $BCl_3$ gas flow rates. By contrast, GaAs was etched at ${{\sim}}0.3{\mu}m$/min at the 2.5 sccm $BCl_3$ flow rate condition. A broad molecular peak was noticed in the range of $500{\sim}700\;mm$ wavelength during the $BCl_3$ plasma etching. SEM photos showed that 10 sccm $BCl_3$ plama produced more undercutting on GaAs sidewall than 5 sccm $BCl_3$ plasma.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.68-72
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• 2009

This study investigated dry etching of acrylic in capacitively coupled $SF_6$, $SF_6/O_2$ and $SF_6/CH_4$ plasma under a low vacuum pressure. The process pressure was 100 mTorr and the total gas flow rate was fixed at 10 sccm. The process variables were the RIE chuck power and the plasma gas composition. The RIE chuck power varied in the range of $25{\sim}150\;W$. $SF_6/O_2$ plasma produced higher etch rates of acrylic than pure $SF_6$ and $O_2$ at a fixed total flow rate. 5 sccm $SF_6$/5 sccm $O_2$ provided $0.11{\mu}m$/min and $1.16{\mu}m$/min at 25W and 150W RIE of chuck power, respectively. The results were nearly 2.9 times higher compared to those at pure $SF_6$ plasma etching. Additionally, mixed plasma of $SF_6/CH_4$ reduced the etch rate of acrylic. 5 sccm $SF_6$/5 sccm $CH_4$ plasma resulted in $0.02{\mu}m$/min and $0.07{\mu}m$/min at 25W and 150W RIE of chuck power. The etch selectivity of acrylic to photoresist was higher in $SF_6/O_2$ plasma than in pure $SF_6$ or $SF_6/CH_4$ plasma. The maximum RMS roughness (7.6 nm) of an etched acrylic surface was found to be 50% $O_2$ in $SF_6/O_2$ plasma. Besides the process regime, the RMS roughness of acrylic was approximately $3{\sim}4\;nm$ at different percentages of $O_2$ with a chuck power of 100W RIE in $SF_6/O_2$ plasma etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2014

The present work proposes an improved numerical simulator for design and modification of large area capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) processing chamber. CCP, as notoriously well-known, demands the tremendously huge computational cost for carrying out transient analyses in realistic multi-dimensional models, because electron dissociations take place in a much smaller time scale (${\Delta}t{\approx}10-8{\sim}10-10$) than time scale of those happened between neutrals (${\Delta}t{\approx}10-1{\sim}10-3$), due to the rf drive frequencies of external electric field. And also, for spatial discretization of electron flux (Je), exponential scheme such as Scharfetter-Gummel method needs to be used in order to alleviate the numerical stiffness and resolve exponential change of spatial distribution of electron temperature (Te) and electron number density (Ne) in the vicinity of electrodes. Due to such computational intractability, it is prohibited to simulate CCP deposition in a three-dimension within acceptable calculation runtimes (<24 h). Under the situation where process conditions require thickness non-uniformity below 5%, however, detailed flow features of reactive gases induced from three-dimensional geometric effects such as gas distribution through the perforated plates (showerhead) should be considered. Without considering plasma chemistry, we therefore simulated flow, temperature and species fields in three-dimensional geometry first, and then, based on that data, boundary conditions of two-dimensional plasma discharge model are set. In the particular case of SiH4-NH3-N2-He CCP discharge to produce deposition of SiNxHy thin film, a cylindrical showerhead electrode reactor was studied by numerical modeling of mass, momentum and energy transports for charged particles in an axi-symmetric geometry. By solving transport equations of electron and radicals simultaneously, we observed that the way how source gases are consumed in the non-isothermal flow field and such consequences on active species production were outlined as playing the leading parts in the processes. As an example of application of the model for the prediction of the deposited thickness uniformity in a 300 mm wafer plasma processing chamber, the results were compared with the experimentally measured deposition profiles along the radius of the wafer varying inter-electrode gap. The simulation results were in good agreement with experimental data.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.132-136
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• 2009

This study investigates GaAs dry etching in capacitively coupled $BCl_3/N_2$ plasma at a low vacuum pressure (>100 mTorr). The applied etch process parameters were a RIE chuck power ranging from $100{\sim}200W$ on the electrodes and a $N_2$ composition ranging from $0{\sim}100%$ in $BCl_3/N_2$ plasma mixtures. After the etch process, the etch rates, RMS roughness and etch selectivity of the GaAs over a photoresist was investigated. Surface profilometry and field emission-scanning electron microscopy were used to analyze the etch characteristics of the GaAs substrate. It was found that the highest etch rate of GaAs was $0.4{\mu}m/min$ at a 20 % $N_2$ composition in $BCl_3/N_2$ (i.e., 16 sccm $BCl_3/4$ sccm $N_2$). It was also noted that the etch rate of GaAs was $0.22{\mu}m/min$ at 20 sccm $BCl_3$ (100 % $BCl_3$). Therefore, there was a clear catalytic effect of $N_2$ during the $BCl_3/N_2$ plasma etching process. The RMS roughness of GaAs after etching was very low (${\sim}3nm$) when the percentage of $N_2$ was 20 %. However, the surface roughness became rougher with higher percentages of $N_2$.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.16 no.9 s.100
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• pp.872-882
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• 2005

In this paper, we examined the operating principle of a passive tag antenna for RFID system in UHF band. Based on the study, we proposed a novel RFID tag antenna which adopts the inductively coupled feeding structure to match antenna impedance to a capacitively loaded commercial tag chip. The proposed tag antenna consists of microstrip lines on a thin PET substrate for low-cost fabrication. The detail structure of the tag antenna were optimized using a full electromagnetic wave simulator of IE3D in conjunction with a Pareto genetic algorithm and the size of the tag antenna can be reduced up to kr=0.27($2 cm^2$). We built some sample antennas and measured the antenna characteristics such as a return loss, an efficiency, and radiation patterns. The readable range of the tag antenna with a commercial RFID system showed about 1 to 3 m.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.458-458
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• 2010

The process window for the etch selectivity of silicon nitride ($Si_3N_4$) layers to extreme ultra-violet (EUV) resist and variation of line edge roughness (LER) of EUV resist were investigated durin getching of $Si_3N_4$/EUV resist structure in a dual-frequency superimposed capacitive coupled plasma (DFS-CCP) etcher by varying the process parameters, such as the $CH_2F_2$ and $N_2$ gas flow rate in $CH_2F_2/N_2$/Ar plasma. The $CH_2F_2$ and $N_2$ flow rate was found to play a critical role in determining the process window for infinite etch selectivity of $Si_3N_4$/EUV resist, due to disproportionate changes in the degree of polymerization on $Si_3N_4$ and EUV resist surfaces. The preferential chemical reaction between hydrogen and carbon in the hydrofluorocarbon ($CH_xF_y$) polymer layer and the nitrogen and oxygen on the $Si_3N_4$, presumably leading to the formation of HCN, CO, and $CO_2$ etch by-products, results in a smaller steady-state hydrofluorocarbon thickness on $Si_3N_4$ and, in turn, in continuous $Si_3N_4$ etching due to enhanced $SiF_4$ formation, while the $CH_xF_y$ layer is deposited on the EUV resist surface. Also critical dimension (and line edge roughness) tend to decrease with increasing $N_2$ flow rate due to decreased degree of polymerization.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2010

This paper introduces a new U.S. ultra-wideband(UWB: 3.1~10.6 GHz) 1:2 power divider based on a single section Wilkinson type configuration. The divider provides very flat in-band power splitting, high isolation, low insertion loss, sharp roll-off bandpass filtering, and DC blocking characteristics. The circuit consists of a $\lambda$/4 Y resonator, three capacitively coupled $\lambda$/2 short-circuited lines, and a resistor between the two output ports. The circuit structure was simulated with ADS and HFSS, and realized with low-temperature co-fired ceramic(LTCC) green tape, which has a dielectric constant of 7.8. $|S_{11}|$ better than 10 dB, $|S_{21}|$ and $|S_{31}|$ less than 3.2 dB, with both $|S_{22}|$ and $|S_{32}|$ measured as better than 12 dB for the whole UWB band. Measurement results agree closely with HFSS simulation results. The power divider has a compact size of $4\times9\times0.6mm^3$.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.329-333
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• 2013

SiOC films were prepared by capacitively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition, and the correlation between the binding energy by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Arrhenius equation for ionization energy was studied. The ionization energy decreased with increase of the potential barrier, and then the dielectric constant also decreased. The binding energy decreased with increase of the potential barrier. The dielectric constant and electrical characteristic of SiOC film was obtained by Arrhenius equation. The dielectric constant of SiOC film was decreased by lowering the polarization, which was made from the recombination between opposite polar sites, and the dissociation energy during the deposition. The SiOC film with the lowest dielectric constant had a flat surface, which depended on how carbocations recombined with other broken bonds of precursor molecules, and it became a fine cross-linked structure with low ionization energy, which contributed to decreasing the binding energy by Si 2p, C 1s electron orbital spectra and O 1s electron orbital spectra. The dielectric constant after annealing decreased, owing to the extraction of the $H_2O$ group, and lowering of the polarity.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.516-520
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• 2009

Atmosphere Plasmas of Gas Discharge (APGD) have been used in plasma sources for material processing such as etching, deposition, surface modification, etc. This study is to investigate and understand the fundamental plasma discharge properties. Especially, $SF_6/N_2$ mixed gas would be used in power transformer, GIS (Gas insulated switchgear) and so on. In this paper, we developed a one dimensional fluid simulation model with capacitively coupled plasma chamber at the atmosphere pressure (760 [Torr]). 38 kinds of $SF_6/N_2$ plasma particles which are an electron, two positive ions (${SF_5}^+$, ${N_2}^+$), five negative ions (${SF_6}^-$, ${SF_5}^-$, ${SF_4}^-$, ${F_2}^-$, ${F_1}^-$), thirty excitation and vibrational particles for $N_2$ were considered in this computation. The $N_2$ gases of 20%, 50%, 80% were mixed in $SF_6$ gas. As the amount of $N_2$ gas was increased, the properties of electro-negative plasma moved toward the electro-positive plasma.