• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1099-1103
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• 2007

TFT's have been intensively researched for possible electronic and display applications. Through tremendous engineering and scientific efforts, a-Si:H TFT fabrication process was greatly improved. In this paper, the reason on defects occurring at a-Si:H TFT fabrication process is analyzed and solved, so a-Si:H TFT's yield is increased and reliability is improved. The a-Si:H TFT of this paper is inverted staggered type TFT. The gate electrode is formed by patterning with length of $8{\mu}m{\sim}16{\mu}m$ and width of $80{\sim}200{\mu}m$ after depositing with gate electrode (Cr). We have fabricated a-SiN:H, conductor, etch-stopper and photo-resistor on gate electrode in sequence, respectively. We have deposited n+a-Si:H, NPR(Negative Photo Resister) layer after forming pattern of Cr gate electrode by etch-slower pattern. The NPR layer by inverting pattern of upper Sate electrode is patterned and the n+a-Si:H layer is etched by the NPR pattern. The NPR layer is removed. After Cr layer is deposited and patterned, the source-drain electrode is formed. The a-Si:H TFT made like this has problems at photo-lithography process caused by remains of PR. When sample is cleaned, this remains of PR makes thin chemical film on surface and damages device. Therefor, in order to improve this problem we added ashing process and cleaning process was enforced strictly. We can estimate that this method stabilizes fabrication process and makes to increase a-Si:H TFT's yield.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2008

We studied plasma etching of polycarbonate in $O_2/SF_6$, $O_2/N_2$ and $O_2/CH_4$. A capacitively coupled plasma system was employed for the research. For patterning, we used a photolithography method with UV exposure after coating a photoresist on the polycarbonate. Main variables in the experiment were the mixing ratio of $O_2$ and other gases, and RF chuck power. Especially, we used only a mechanical pump for in order to operate the system. The chamber pressure was fixed at 100 mTorr. All of surface profilometry, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used for characterization of the etched polycarbonate samples. According to the results, $O_2/SF_6$ plasmas gave the higher etch rate of the polycarbonate than pure $O_2$ and $SF_6$ plasmas. For example, with maintaining 100W RF chuck power and 100 mTorr chamber pressure, 20 sccm $O_2$ plasma provided about $0.4{\mu}m$/min of polycarbonate etch rate and 20 sccm $SF_6$ produced only $0.2{\mu}m$/min. However, the mixed plasma of 60 % $O_2$ and 40 % $SF_6$ gas flow rate generated about $0.56{\mu}m$ with even low -DC bias induced compared to that of $O_2$. More addition of $SF_6$ to the mixture reduced etch of polycarbonate. The surface roughness of etched polycarbonate was roughed about 3 times worse measured by atomic force microscopy. However examination with scanning electron microscopy indicated that the surface was comparable to that of photoresist. Increase of RF chuck power raised -DC bias on the chuck and etch rate of polycarbonate almost linearly. The etch selectivity of polycarbonate to photoresist was about 1:1. The meaning of these results was that the simple capacitively coupled plasma system can be used to make a microstructure on polymer with $O_2/SF_6$ plasmas. This result can be applied to plasma processing of other polymers.