The angular etching yields of polysilicon in plasmas, and dielectric materials (thermal silicon dioxide and low- dielectric coral) in fluorocarbon plasmas, have been characterized in an inductively coupled plasma beam apparatus. The effects of ion energy, feed gas composition, and plasma source pressure are studied. The experimental results showed that these etching parameters had a significant impact on the resulting angular etching yield curve. In particular, the angular etching yield curve was more sputteringlike at low plasma source pressure and/or low effective gas percentage ( and ), with a peak around 60°–70° off-normal ion incident angle. In contrast, ion-enhanced-etching-like angular curves, which dropped gradually with off-normal angle, were formed at high plasma source pressure and/or high effective gas percentage. Further analysis indicated that the effective neutral-to-ion flux ratio reaching the surface was the primary factor influencing the angular etching yield curve. More specifically, the angular etching yield curve had physical sputtering characteristics at low neutral-to-ion flux ratios; while etching process was really dominated by ion-enhanced etching at high ratios and the angular curve was ion-enhanced-etching-like. The polymer deposition effects are also discussed in this article.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
January 2008
Research Article|
January 02 2008
Angular etching yields of polysilicon and dielectric materials in and fluorocarbon plasmas
Yunpeng Yin;
Yunpeng Yin
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Search for other works by this author on:
Herbert H. Sawin
Herbert H. Sawin
a)
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Search for other works by this author on:
a)
Electronic mail: hhsawin@mit.edu
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 26, 161–173 (2008)
Article history
Received:
June 04 2007
Accepted:
November 13 2007
Citation
Yunpeng Yin, Herbert H. Sawin; Angular etching yields of polysilicon and dielectric materials in and fluorocarbon plasmas. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 1 January 2008; 26 (1): 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1116/1.2821750
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionPay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Citing articles via
Related Content
Impact of etching kinetics on the roughening of thermal Si O 2 and low- k dielectric coral films in fluorocarbon plasmas
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (June 2007)
Silicon dioxide reactive ion etching dependence on sheath voltage
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (May 1986)
Quantification of surface film formation effects in fluorocarbon plasma etching of polysilicon
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (May 1991)
Angular dependence of silicon oxide etching yield in fluorocarbon chemistries
Appl. Phys. Lett. (March 2006)
Angular dependence of SiO 2 etching in a fluorocarbon plasma
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (November 2000)