• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.918-924
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• 1996

A downstream oxygen plasma is generated by capacitively coupled RF power and applied to photoresist stripping. Stripping rate (ashing rate) is measured in terms of RF power, chamber pressure, oxygen flow rate and temperature. Ashing reaction is thermally activated and depends on oxygen radical density. The ashing process is optimized to have the high ashing rate, good uniformity and minimal plasma damage using a statistical method.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1500-1503
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• 2009

In this paper, we studied about atmospheric pressure remote plasma ashing of photoresist(PR), by using a modified dielectric barrier discharge(DBD). The effect of various gas combinations such as $N_2/O_2$, $N_2/O_2+SF_6$ on the changes PR ashing rate was investigated as a function of power. The maximum PR ashing rate of 1850 nm/min was achieved at $N_2$ (70 slm)/ $O_2$ (200 sccm) + $SF_6$ (3 slm). We found that as the oxygen and fluorine radical peaks were increased, the ashing rate is increased, too.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.204-209
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• 2006

Photo Resist (PR) ashing process was carried out with the atmospheric pressure- dielectric barrier discharge (ADBD) using $SF_6/N_2/O_2$. Ashing rate (AR) was sensitive to the mixing ratio of the oxygen and nitrogen of the blower type of ADBD asher. The maximum AR of 5000 A/min was achieved at 2% of oxygen in the $N_2$ plasma. With increasing the oxygen concentration to more than 2% in the $N_2$ plasma, the discharge becomes weak due to the high electron affinity of oxygen, resulting in the decrease of AR. When adding 0.5% of SF6 to $O_2/N_2$ mixed plasma, the PR AR increased drastically to 9000 A/min and the ashed surface of PR was smoother compared to the processed surface without $SF_6$. Carbon Fluorinated polymer may passivate the PR surface. It was also observed that the glass surface was not damaged by the fluorine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.152-155
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• 2003

Ashing of photoresist was investigated in dielectric barrier discharges in atmospheric pressure by changing applied voltage, frequency, flow rate. we analyzed the plasma by Optical Emission Spectroscopy(OES) to monitor the variation of active oxygen species. Another new peaks of oxygen radical is observed by addition of argon gas. This may explain the increase in ashing rate with argon addition. With the results of Optical Emission Spectroscopy(OES), we can find the optimized ashing conditions. MIS capacitor for monitoring charging damage by the plasma was also studied. The results suggest the dielectric barrier discharges(DBD) can be an efficient, alternative Plasma source for general surface processing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 1998

A helical inductively coupled plasma asher, which produces low energy and high density plasma, has been built and investigated for photoresist stripping process. Oxygen ion density in the order of $10^{11}/cm^3$ is measured by Langmuir probe, and higher oxygen radical density is observed by Optical Emission Spectrometer. As RF source power is increased, the plasma density and thus photoresist stripping rate are increased. Independent RF bias power to the wafer stage provides a dc bias to the wafer and an ability to add the ion assisted reaction. At 1 KW of the source power, the coupling mechanism of the RF power to the plasma is changed from the inductive mode to the capacitive one at about 1 Torr. This change causes the plasma density and ashing rate decreases abruptly. The critical pressure of the mode change becomes larger with larger RF power.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.06b
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• pp.290-293
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• 2000

Low frequency(<100Hz) weak magnetic field(<20gauss) is applied axially to an inductively coupled oxygen plasma(ICP), and its plasma characteristics are monitored by OES(Optical Emission Spectroscopy) and Langmuir probe. It is found that periodic magnetic field enhances ashing rate by 25％ and improves its uniformity upto 4.5％ over 8" wafer. From electron energy distribution function, both low and high energy electrons are identified and relative abundancy is found to be controlled by the applied frequency. Moreover, it is observed that ionization and dissociation species are varied with applied frequency. We insert an aluminium baffle in the chamber to get better uniformity and less plasma damage.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 2017

The supercritical $CO_2$ (sc-$CO_2$) mixture and the sc-$CO_2$-based Photoresist(PR) stripping(SCPS) process were applied to the removal of the post etch/ash PR residue on aluminum patterned wafers and the results were observed by scanning of electron microscope(SEM). In the case of MDII wafers, the carbonized PR was able to be effectively removed without pre-stripping by oxygen plasma ashing by using sc-$CO_2$ mixture containing the optimum formulated additives at the proper pressure and temperature, and the same result was also able to be obtained in the case of HDII wafer. It was found that the efficiency of SCPS of ion implanted wafer improved as the temperature of SCPS was high, so a very large amount of MEA in the sc-$CO_2$ mixture could be reduced if the temperature could be increased at condition that a process permits, and the ion implanted photoresist(IIP) on the wafer was able to be removed completely without pre-treatment of plasma ashing by using the only 1 step SCPS process. By using SCPS process, PR polymers formed on sidewalls of metal conductive layers such as aluminum films, titanium and titanium nitride films by dry etching and ashing processes were removed effectively with the minimization of the corrosion of the metal conductive layers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.353-357
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• 2010

Recently, silicon etching have received much attention for display industry, nano imprint technology, silicon photonics, and MEMS application. After the etching process, removing of etch mask and residue of sidewall is very important. The investigation of the etched mask removing was carried out by using the ashing, HF dipping and acid cleaning process. Experiment shows that oxygen component of reactive gas and photoresist react with silicon and converting them into the mask fence. It is very difficult to remove by using ashing or acid cleaning process because mask fence consisted of Si and O compounds. However, dilute HF dipping is very effective process for SiOx layer removing. Finally, we found optimized condition for etched mask removing.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.487-494
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• 2000

This paper describes the design, fabrication and experiments of surface-micromachined aluminum micromirror array with hidden pin-joints. Instead of the conventional elastic spring components as connection between mirror plate and supporting structure, we used pin-joint composed of pin and staples to support the mirror plate. The placement of pin-joint under the mirror plate makes large active surface area possible. These flexureless micromirrors are driven by electrostatic force. As the mirror plate has discrete deflection angles, the device can be ap;lied to adaptive optics and digitally-operating optical applications. Four-level metal structural layers and semi-cured photoresist sacrificial layers were used in the fabrication process and sacrificial layers were removed by oxygen plasma ashing. Static characteristics of fabricated samples were measured and compared with modeling results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.103-104
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• 2007

Nanometer-scaled polymer beads, such as polystyrene beads, were used as nanometer fabrication materials due to their some advantages such as self-assembled monolayer, nanometer scaled size and excellent compatibility with silicon based devices. Thus, the investigation on these properties of polymer beads was required. It is difficult to control the array of polystyrene beads on silicon substrate. In this study, we investigated the condition of selective array of polystyrene beads on nanometer-scaled hydrophilic surface which was obtained by APS coating. A tilting method was used to array the polystyrene beads selectively on the substrate. The polystyrene beads could be arrayed selectively by this method. From these results, we verified that there are possibilities to fabricate unique tools for the nanometer-scaled electrical devices.