• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.408-408
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• 2012

It is well known that magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is nonvolatile memory devices using ferromagnetic materials. MRAM has the merits such as fast access time, unlimited read/write endurance and nonvolatility. Although DRAM has many advantages containing high storage density, fast access time and low power consumption, it becomes volatile when the power is turned off. Owing to the attractive advantages of MRAM, MRAM is being spotlighted as an alternative device in the future. MRAM consists of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and complementary metal- oxide semiconductor (CMOS). MTJ stacks are composed of various magnetic materials. FePt thin films are used as a pinned layer of MTJ stack. Up to date, an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) method of MTJ stacks showed better results in terms of etch rate and etch profile than any other methods such as ion milling, chemical assisted ion etching (CAIE), reactive ion etching (RIE). In order to improve etch profiles without redepositon, a better etching process of MTJ stack needs to be developed by using different etch gases and etch parameters. In this research, influences of $O_2$ gas on the etching characteristics of FePt thin films were investigated. FePt thin films were etched using ICPRIE in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mix. The etch rate and the etch selectivity were investigated in various $O_2$ concentrations. The etch profiles were studied in varying etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage, and gas pressure. TiN was employed as a hard mask. For observation etch profiles, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.307-307
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• 2013

초고집적 회로에 적용되는 반도체 소자의critical dimension (CD)이 수 nano 사이즈로 줄어들고 있기 때문에, 다양한 물질의 식각을 할 때, 건식식각의 중요성이 더 강조되고 있다. 특히 $SiO_2$와 같은 유전체 물질을 식각할 때, plasma process induced damages (P2IDs)가 관찰되어 왔고, 이러한 P2IDs를 줄이기 위해, pulsed-time modulation plasma가 광범위하게 연구되어 왔다. Pulsed plasma는 정기적으로 radio frequency (RF) power on과 off를 반복하여 rf power가 off된 동안, 평균전자 온도를 낮춤으로써, 웨이퍼로 입사되는 전하 축적을 효과적으로 줄일 수 있다. 또한 fluorocarbon plasmas를 사용하여 $SiO_2$를 식각하기 위해 Dual-Frequency Capacitive coupled plasma (DF-CCP)도 널리 연구되어 왔는데, 이것은 기존의 방법과는 다르게 plasma 밀도와 ion bombardment energy를 독립적으로 조절 가능하다는 장점이 있어서 미세 패턴을 식각할 때 효과적이다. 본 연구에서는 Source power에는 60 MHz pulsed radio frequency (RF)를, bias power에는 2 MHz continuous wave (CW) rf power가 사용된 system에서 Ar/$C_4$ F8/$O_2$ 가스 조합으로, amorphous carbon layer (ACL)가 hard mask로 사용된 $SiO_2$를 식각했다. 그리고 source pulse의 duty ratio와 pulse frequency의 효과에 따른 $SiO_2$의 식각특성을 연구하였다. 그 결과, duty ratio의 감소에 따라 $SiO_2$, ACL의 etch rate이 감소했지만, $SiO_2$/ACL의 etch selectivity는 증가하였다. 반면에 pulse frequency의 변화에 따른 두 물질의 etch selectivity는 크게 변화가 없었다. 그 이유는 pulse 조건인 duty ratio의 감소가 전자 온도 및 전자 에너지를 낮춰 $C_2F8$가스의 분해를 감소시켰으며, 이로 인해 식각된 $SiO_2$의 surface와 sidewall에 fluorocarbon polymer의 형성이 증가하였기 때문이다. 또한 duty ratio의 감소에 따라 etch selectivity뿐만 아니라 etch profile까지 향상되는 것을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.167-167
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• 2011

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is one of the prospective semiconductor memories for next generation. It has the excellent features including nonvolatility, fast access time, unlimited read/write endurance, low operating voltage, and high storage density. MRAM consists of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). The MTJ stack is composed of various magnetic materials, metals, and a tunneling barrier layer. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of magnetic materials should be developed. Among various magnetic materials, FePt has been used for pinned layer of MTJ stack. The previous etch study of FePt magnetic thin films was carried out using $CH_4/O_2/NH_3$. It reported only the etch characteristics with respect to the variation of RF bias powers. In this study, the etch characteristics of FePt thin films have been investigated using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etcher in various etch chemistries containing $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mixes. TiN thin film was employed as a hard mask. FePt thin films are etched by varying the gas concentration. The etch characteristics have been investigated in terms of etch rate, etch selectivity and etch profile. Furthermore, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is applied to elucidate the etch mechanism of FePt thin films in $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ chemistries.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.416-422
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• 1999

The characteristics of inductively coupled Cl$_2$/BCl$_3$ plasmas during the GaN etching were studied using plasma mass spectrometry by measuring the relative amounts of reactive ions, neutrals, and etch products. GaN etch rates increased with the increase of pressure and showed a maximum near 25mTorr for the pure $Cl_2$ and near 30mTorr for $Cl_2$$BCl_3$. The addition of$ BCl_3$ to $Cl_2$ also was increased GaN etch rates until 50%BCl$_3$ was mixed to $Cl_2$. The GaN etching with pure $Cl Cl_2$ appears to be related to the combination of Cl$_2^{+}$ ion bombardment and the chemical reaction of Cl radicals. In the case of the GaN etching with Cl$_2$/BCl$_3$, in addition to the combined effect of$_2^{ +}$ ions and Cl radicals, $_BCl2^{+ }$ ions appear to be responsible for some of GaN etching even though they do not have significant effect on the GaN etching compared to $Cl_2^{+}$ and Cl. $Ga^{+ }$ , $GaCl^{+}$ , $GaCl_2^{+}$ , and $N_2^{+}$ were observed as the positive ions of etch products, and the intensities of these etch products showed the same trends as those of GaN etch rate. Among the etch products, Ga and $N_2$ appear to be the main etch products.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.516-521
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• 2001

Dry etching of Si wafer and $SiO_2$ layers was performed using He/Cl$_2$ mixture plasma by diode-type reactive ion etcher (RIE) system. For Si etching, the Cl molecules react with the Si molecules on the surface and become chemically stable, indicating that the reactants need energetic ion bombardment. During the ion assisted desorption, energetic ions would damage the photoresist (PR) and produce the bad etch Si-profile. Moreover, we have examined the characteristics of the Cl-Si reaction system, and developed the new fabrication procedures with a $Cl_2$/He mixture for Si and $SiO_2$-etching. The developed novel fabrication procedure allows the RIE to be unexpensive and useful a Si deep etching system. Since the etch rate was proved to increase linearly with fHe and the selectivity of Si to $SiO_2$ etch rate was observed to be inversely proportional to fHe.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.747-751
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• 2010

In the study, the characteristics of the etched Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films surface, the etch rate of ZnO thin film in $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma was investigated. The maximum ZnO etch rate of 53 nm/min was obtained for $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$=3:16:4 sccm gas mixture. According to the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), the etched ZnO thin film was investigated to the chemical reaction of the ZnO surface in $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma. The field emission auger electron spectroscopy (FE-AES) analysis showed an elemental analysis from the etched surfaces. According to the etching time, the ZnO thin film of etched was obtained to The AES depth-profile analysis. We used to atomic force microscopy to determine the roughness of the surface. So, the root mean square of ZnO thin film was 17.02 in $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the plasmas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.214-215
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• 2007

Etch rates and surface chemistry of phenol formaldehyde-based photoresist after short time $O_2\;and\;N_2O$ radio frequency (RF) plasma treatment depending on exposure time were investigated. It was found that the etch rate of photoresist sharply increased after discharge turn on and reached a limit with increase in plasma exposure time in both gases. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that the surface chemical structure become nearly constant after the treatment of 15 sec. Concentration of surface oxygen-containing groups after processing both in oxygen and in $N_2O$ plasmas is similar.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.8 no.4B
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• pp.541-547
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• 1999

Reactive ion etching process for InP using BCl3/O2/Ar high density inductively coupled plasma was investigated. The experimental design method proposed by the Taguchi was utilized to cover the whole parameter range while maintaining reasonable number of actual experiments. Results showed that the ICP power and the chamber pressure were the two dominant parameters affectsing etch results. It was also observed that the etch rate decreased and the surface roughness improved as the ICP power and the bias voltage increased and as the chamber pressure decreased. The Addition of oxygen to the gas mixture drastically improved surface roughness by suppressing the formation of the surface reaction product. The optimum condition was ICP power 600W, bias voltage -100V, 10% $O_2$, 6mTorr, and $180^{\circ}C$, resulting in about 0.15$\mu\textrm{m}$ etch rate with smooth surfaces and vertical mesa sidewalls Also, the maximum etch rate of abut 4.5 $\mu\textrm{m}$/min was obtained at the condition of ICP power 800W, bias voltage -150V, 15% $O_2$, 8mTorr and $160^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.276-279
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• 2011

This work, the etching characteristics of $Ba_2Ti_9O_{20}$(BTO) thin films were investigated using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) of $Ar/Cl_2$ gas mixture. The etch rate of BTO thin films as well as the $BTO/SiO_2$ and BTO/PR etch selectivity were measured as functions of $Ar/Cl_2$ mixing ratio (0~100% Ar) at a constants gas pressure (6 mTorr), total gas flow rate (50 sccm), input power (700 W) and bias power (200 W). The etch rate of BTO thin films decreased with increasing Ar fraction. To analyze the etching mechanism an optical emission spectroscopy (OES), double Langmuir probe(DLP) and surface analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were carried out.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.188-192
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• 2000

In this study PZT etching was performed using planar inductively coupled Ar/Cl$_2$/BCI$_3$ 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$0^{\circ}C$. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) analysis for films composition of etched PZT surface was utilized. The chemical bond of PbO is broken by ion bombardment and Cl radical, and the peak of metal Pb in a Pb 4f narrow scan begins to appear upon etching. As increasing additive BCl$_3$content the relative content of oxygen decreases rapidly in contrast with etch rate of PZT thin film. So we though that the etch rate of PZT thin film increased because abundant B and BCl radicals made volatile oxy-compound such as B$_{x}$/O$_{y}$ and/or BClO$_{x}$ bond. We achieved etch profile of about 80$^{\circ}$ at Ar(20)/BCl$_3$(80) gas mixing condition and substrate temperature of 8$0^{\circ}C$TEX>X>.