• Corrosion Science and Technology
• /
• v.2 no.5
• /
• pp.238-242
• /
• 2003

The characteristics of Ru etching using $O_2/Cl_2$ plasmas were investigated by employing inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etcher. The changes of Ru etch rate, Ru to $SiO_2$ etch selectivity and Ru electrode etching slope with the gas flow ratio, bias power, total gas flow rate, and source power were scrutinized. A high etching slope (${\sim}86^{\circ}$) and a smooth surface after etching was attained using $O_2/Cl_2$ inductively coupled plasma.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.49 no.1
• /
• pp.98-103
• /
• 2016

The dry etching characteristics of SnO thin films were investigated using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) in Ar, $CF_4$, $Cl_2$ chemistries. the SnO thin films were deposited by reactive rf magnetron sputtering with Sn metal target. In order to study the etching rates of SnO, the processing factors of processing pressure, source power, bias power, and etching gas were controlled. The etching behavior of SnO films under various conditions was obtained and discussed by comparing to that of $SiO_2$ films. In our results, the etch rate of SnO film was obtained as 94nm/min. The etch rates were mainly affected by physical etching and the contribution of chemical etching to SnO films appeared relatively week.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.261-266
• /
• 1998

In developing the high density memory device, the etching of fine pattern is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, definition of ultra fine line and space pattern and minimization of damage and contamination are essential process. Also, the high density plasma in low operating pressure is necessary. The candidates of high density plasma sources are electron cyclotron resonance plasma, helicon wave plasma, helical resonator, and inductively coupled plasma. In this study, planar type magnetized inductively coupled plasma etcher has been built. The density and temperature of Ar plasma are measured as a function of rf power, flow rate, external magnetic field, and pressure. The oxide etch rate and selectivity to polysilicon are measured as the above mentioned conditions and self-bias voltage.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.144-147
• /
• 2011

In this work, we present a study regarding the etching characteristics on titanium nitride (TiN) thin films using an inductively coupled plasma system. The TiN thin film was etched using a $N_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma. The studied etching parameters were the gas mixing ratio, the radio frequency (RF) power, the direct current (DC)-bias voltages, and the process pressures. The baseline conditions were as follows: RF power = 500 W, DC-bias voltage = -150 V, substrate temperature = $40^{\circ}C$, and process pressure = 15 mTorr. The maximum etch rate and the selectivity of the TiN to the $SiO_2$ thin film were 62.38 nm/min and 5.7, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed no accumulation of etching byproducts from the etched surface of the TiN thin film. Based on the experimental results, the etched TiN thin film was obtained by the chemical etching found in the reactive ion etching mechanism.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.701-707
• /
• 2004

High aspect ratio silicon structure through deep silicon etching process have become indispensable for advanced MEMS applications. In this paper, we present the results of modified Bosch process to obtain anisotropic silicon structure with conventional Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) etcher instead of the expensive Bosch process systems. In modified Bosch process, etching step ($SFsub6$) / sidewall passivation ($Csub4Fsub8$) step time is much longer than commercialized Bosch scheme and process transition time is introduced between process steps to improve gas switching and RF power delivery efficiency. To optimize process parameters, etching ($SFsub6$) / sidewall passivation ($Csub4Fsub8$) time and ion energy effects on etching profile was investigated. Etch profile strongly depends on the period of etch / passivation and ion energy. Furthermore, substrate temperature during etching process was found to be an important parameter determining etching profile. Test structures with different pattern size have been etched for the comparison of the aspect ratio dependent etch rate and the formation of silicon grass. At optimized process condition, micropatterns etched with modified Bosch process showed nearly vertical sidewall and no silicon grass formation with etch rate of 1.2 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$/ min and the size of scallop of 250 nm.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.996-1002
• /
• 2000

Ferroelectric (Ba, Sr) TiO$_3$(BST) thin films have attracted much attention for use in new capacitor materials of dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). In order to apply BST to the DRAMs, the etching process for BST thin film with high etch rate and vertical profile must be developed. However, the former studies have the problem of low etch rate. In this study, in order to increase the etch rate, BST thin films were etched with a magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma(MEICP) that have much higher plasma density than RIE (reactive ion etching) and ICP (inductively coupled plasma). Experiment was done by varying the etching parameters such as CF$_4$/(CF$_4$+Ar) gas mixing ratio, rf power, dc bias voltage and chamber pressure. The maximum etch rate of the BST films was 170nm/min under CF$_4$/CF$_4$+Ar) of 0.1, 600 W/-350 V and 5 mTorr. The selectivities of BST to Pt and PR were 0.6 and 0.7, respectively. Chemical reaction and residue of the etched surface were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS).

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 1997.11a
• /
• pp.276-278
• /
• 1997

The reliable etching process is one of the essential steps in fabricating GaN based-device. High etch rate is needed to obtain a deeply etched structure and perfect anisotropic etched facet is needed to obtain lasing profile. In the research, therefore, we had proposed a planar inductively coupled plasma etcher (Planar ICP Etcher) as a high density plasma source, and studied the etching mechanism using the $CH_4/H_2$/Ar gas mixture. Dry etching characteristics such as etch rate, anisotropic etching profile and so on, for the III-V nitride layers were investigated using Planar ICP Etcher, based on the plasma characteristic as a variation of plasma process parameters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.07a
• /
• pp.400-403
• /
• 2003

Etching characteristics of (Pb,Sr)$TiO_3$(PST) thin films were investigated using inductively coupled chlorine based plasma system as functions of gas mixing ratio, RF power and DC bias voltage. It was found that increasing of Ar content in gas mixture lead to sufficient increasing of etch rate and selectivity of PST to Pt. The maximum etch rate of PST film is $562\;{\AA}$/min and the selectivity of PST film to Pt is 0.8 at $Cl_2/(Cl_2+Ar)$ of 20 %. It was proposed that sputter etching is dominant etching mechanism while the contribution of chemical reaction is relatively low due to low volatility of etching products.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.77-77
• /
• 2011

These days, a growing demand for memory device is filled up with the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Although DRAM is a reasonable solution for current demand, the universal novel memory with high density, high speed and nonvolatility, needs to be developed. Among various new memories, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM) device is considered as one of good candidate memories because of excellent features including high density, high speed, low operating power and nonvolatility. The etching of MTJ stack which is composed of magnetic materials and insulator such as MgO is one of the vital process for MRAM. Recently, MgO has attracted great interest in the MTJ stack as tunneling barrier layer for its high tunneling magnetoresistance values. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of MgO thin films should be investigated. Until now, there were some works devoted to the investigations on etch characteristics of MgO thin films. Initially, ion milling was applied to the etching of MgO thin films. However, ion milling has many disadvantages such as sidewall redeposition and etching damage. High density plasma etching containing the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching and high density reactive ion etching have been employed for the improvement of etching process. In this work, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) system was adopted for the improvement of etching process using MgO thin films and etching gas mixes of $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4$/$O_2$/Ar have been employed. The etch rates are measured by a surface profilometer and etch profiles are observed using field emission scanning emission microscopy (FESEM). The effects of gas concentration and etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage to substrate, and gas pressure on etch characteristics will be systematically explored.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.156-162
• /
• 2008

We report results on a study of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching of Parylene-C (poly-monochloro-para-xylylene) films using an $O_2$ gas. Effects of process parameters on etch rates were investigated and are discussed in this article from the standpoint of plasma parameter measurements, performed using a Langmuir probe and modeling calculation. Process parameters of interest include ICP source power and pressure. It was shown that major etching agent of polymer films was oxygen atoms O($^3P$). At the same time it was proposed that positive ions were not effective etchant, but ions played an important role as effective channel of energy transfer from plasma towards the polymer.