• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.320-320
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• 2013

Film thickness monitoring with plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) is demonstrated for small area $SiO_2$ RF plasma etching processes in this work. The chamber conditions were monitored by the impedance signal variation from the I-V monitoring system. Moreover, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) was applied to estimate the $SiO_2$ film thickness. For verification, the PIM was compared with optical emission spectroscopy (OES) signals which are widely used in the semiconductor industry. The results indicated that film thickness can be estimated by 1st principal component (PC) and 2nd PC. Film thickness monitoring of small area $SiO_2$ etching was successfully demonstrated with RF plasma harmonic impedance monitoring and mPCA. We believe that this technique can be potentially applied to plasma etching processes as a sensitive process monitoring tool.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.123.2-123.2
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• 2013

Etching endpoint detection with plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) is demonstrated for small area dielectric layers inductive coupled plasma etching. The endpoint is determined by the impedance harmonic signals variation from the I-V monitoring system. Measuring plasma impedance has been examined as a relatively simple method of detecting variations in plasma and surface conditions without contamination at low cost. Cluster analysis algorithm is modified and applied to real-time endpoint detection for sensitivity enhancement in this work. For verification, the detected endpoint by PIM and real-time cluster analysis is compared with widely used optical emission spectroscopy (OES) signals. The proposed technique shows clear improvement of sensitivity with significant noise reduction when it is compared with OES signals. This technique is expected to be applied to various plasma monitoring applications including fault detections as well as end point detection.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2016

The endpoint detection (EPD) is the most important technique in plasma etching process. In plasma etching process, the Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) is usually used to analyze plasma reaction. And Plasma Impedance Monitoring (PIM) system is used to measure the voltage, current, power, and load impedance of the supplied RF power during plasma process. In this paper, a new decision making algorithm is proposed to improve the performance of EPD in SiOx single layer plasma etching. To enhance the accuracy of the endpoint detection, both OES data and PIM data are utilized and a newly proposed decision making algorithm is applied. The proposed method successfully detected endpoint of silicon oxide plasma etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.32-32
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• 2011

Plasma etching is used in microelectronic processing for patterning of micro- and nano-scale devices. Commonly, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is widely used for real-time endpoint detection for plasma etching. However, if the viewport for optical-emission monitoring becomes blurred by polymer film due to prolonged use of the etching system, optical-emission monitoring becomes impossible. In addition, when the exposed area ratio on the wafer is small, changes in the optical emission are so slight that it is almost impossible to detect the endpoint of etching. For this reason, as a simple method of detecting variations in plasma without contamination of the reaction chamber at low cost, a method of measuring plasma impedance is being examined. The object in this research is to investigate the suitability of using plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) with statistical approach for real-time endpoint detection of $SiO_2$ etching. The endpoint was determined by impedance signal variation from I-V monitor (VI probe). However, the signal variation at the endpoint is too weak to determine endpoint when $SiO_2$ film on Si wafer is etched by fluorocarbon plasma on inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etcher. Therefore, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) is applied to them for increasing sensitivity. For verifying this method, detected endpoint from impedance analysis is compared with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). From impedance data, we tried to analyze physical properties of plasma, and real-time endpoint detection can be achieved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.182-182
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• 2012

Plasma etching is used in various semiconductor processing steps. In plasma etcher, optical- emission spectroscopy (OES) is widely used for in-situ endpoint detection. However, the sensitivity of OES is decreased if polymer is deposited on viewport or the proportion of exposed area on the wafer is too small. Because of these problems, the object is to investigate the suitability of using plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) and self plasma optical emission spectrocopy (SPOES) with statistical approach for in-situ endpoint detection. The endpoint was determined by impedance signal variation from I-V monitor (VI probe) and optical emission signal from SPOES. However, the signal variation at the endpoint is too weak to determine endpoint when $SiO_2$ and SiNx layers are etched by fluorocarbon on inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etcher, if the proportion of $SiO_2$ and SiNx area on Si wafer are small. Therefore, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) is applied to them for increasing sensitivity. For verifying this method, detected endpoint from impedance monitoring is compared with optical emission spectroscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.523-523
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• 2012

As the wafer geometric requirements continuously complicated and minutes in tens of nanometers, the expectation of real-time add-on sensors for in-situ plasma process monitoring is rapidly increasing. Various industry applications, utilizing plasma impedance monitor (PIM) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), on etch end point detection, etch chemistry investigation, health monitoring, fault detection and classification, and advanced process control are good examples. However, process monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing industry requires non-invasiveness. The hypothesis behind the optical monitoring of plasma induced ion current is for the monitoring of plasma induced charging damage in non-invasive optical way. In plasma dielectric via etching, the bombardment of reactive ions on exposed conductor patterns may induce electrical current. Induced electrical charge can further flow down to device level, and accumulated charges in the consecutive plasma processes during back-end metallization can create plasma induced charging damage to shift the threshold voltage of device. As a preliminary research for the hypothesis, we performed two phases experiment to measure the plasma induced current in etch environmental condition. We fabricated electrical test circuits to convert induced current to flickering frequency of LED output, and the flickering frequency was measured by high speed optical plasma monitoring system (OPMS) in 10 kHz. Current-frequency calibration was done in offline by applying stepwise current increase while LED flickering was measured. Once the performance of the test circuits was evaluated, a metal pad for collecting ion bombardment during plasma etch condition was placed inside etch chamber, and the LED output frequency was measured in real-time. It was successful to acquire high speed optical emission data acquisition in 10 kHz. Offline measurement with the test circuitry was satisfactory, and we are continuously investigating the potential of real-time in-situ plasma induce current measurement via OPMS.