• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.250-251
• /
• 2009

For the fabrication of a multilevel resist (MLR) based on a very thin amorphous carbon (a-C) layer an $Si_{3}N_{4}$ hard-mask layer, the selective etching of the $Si_{3}N_{4}$ layer using physical-vapor-deposited (PVD) a-C mask was investigated in a dual-frequency superimposed capacitively coupled plasma etcher by varying the following process parameters in $CH_{2}F_{2}/H_{2}/Ar$ plasmas : HF/LF powr ratio ($P_{HF}/P_{LF}$), and $CH_{2}F_{2}$ and $H_2$ flow rates. It was found that infinitely high etch selectivities of the $Si_{3}N_{4}$ layers to the PVD a-C on both the blanket and patterned wafers could be obtained for certain gas flow conditions. The $H_2$ and $CH_{2}F_{2}$ flow ratio was found to play a critical role in determining the process window for infinite $Si_{3}N_{4}$/PVDa-C etch selectivity, due to the change in the degree of polymerization. Etching of ArF PR/BARC/$SiO_x$/PVDa-C/$Si_{3}N_{4}$ MLR structure supported the possibility of using a very thin PVD a-C layer as an etch-mask layer for the $Si_{3}N_{4}$ layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.02a
• /
• pp.459-459
• /
• 2012

Recently, the discharge of global warming gases in dry etching process of TFT-LCD display industry is a serious issue because perfluorocarbon compound (PFC) gas causes global warming effects. PFCs including CF4, C2F6, C3F8, CHF3, NF3 and SF6 are widely used as etching and cleaning gases. In particular, the SF6 gas is chemically stable compounds. However, these gases have large global warming potential (GWP100 = 24,900) and lifetime (3,200). In this work, we chose C3F6O gas which has a very low GWP (GWP100 = <100) and lifetime (< 1) as a replacement gas. This study investigated the effects of the gas flow ratio of C3F6O/O2 and process pressure in dual-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) etcher on global warming effects. Also, we compared global warming effects of C3F6O gas with those of SF6 gas during dry etching of a patterned positive type photo-resist/silicon nitride/glass substrate. The etch rate measurements and emission of by-products were analyzed by scanning electron Microscopy (SEM; HITACI, S-3500H) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR; MIDAC, I2000), respectively. Calculation of MMTCE (million metric ton carbon equivalents) based on the emitted by-products were performed during etching by controlling various process parameters. The evaluation procedure and results will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.416-421
• /
• 2011

In this paper, the relationship of chamber contamination and the intensity change of specific wavelength was investigated. "diff_CO" formula was introduced to rule out background noise caused by external conditions and to detect when the polymer is removed from the chamber. As RF time increased, diff_CO trend showed the decrease of the maximum peak and increased number of small intensity peaks. From the diff_CO change, it was possible to determine when the chamber needs to be cleaned without opening the chamber.