The plasma etch characteristics of aluminum nitride (AlN) deposited by low-temperature, 200 °C, plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) was investigated for reactive ion etch (RIE) and inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etch (ICP-RIE) systems using various mixtures of SF6 and O2 under different etch conditions. During RIE, the film exhibits good mask properties with etch rates below 10r nm/min. For ICP-RIE processes, the film exhibits exceptionally low etch rates in the subnanometer region with lower platen power. The AlN film’s removal occurred through physical mechanisms; consequently, rf power and chamber pressure were the most significant parameters in PEALD AlN film removal because the film was inert to the and O+ chemistries. The etch experiments showed the film to be a resilient masking material. This makes it an attractive candidate for use as an etch mask in demanding SF6 based plasma etch applications, such as through-wafer etching, or when oxide films are not suitable.
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January 2012
Research Article|
December 05 2011
Plasma etch characteristics of aluminum nitride mask layers grown by low-temperature plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition in SF6 based plasmas
Alexander Perros;
Alexander Perros
a)
Department of Micro- and Nanosciences, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
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Markus Bosund;
Markus Bosund
Department of Micro- and Nanosciences, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
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Timo Sajavaara;
Timo Sajavaara
Department of Physics,
University of Jyväskylä
, P.O. Box 35, 40014, Jyväskylä,Finland
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Mikko Laitinen;
Mikko Laitinen
Department of Physics,
University of Jyväskylä
, P.O. Box 35, 40014, Jyväskylä,Finland
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Lauri Sainiemi;
Lauri Sainiemi
Department of Micro and Nanosciences, School of Electrical Engineering,
Aalto University
, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076, Aalto
, Finland
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Teppo Huhtio;
Teppo Huhtio
Department of Micro and Nanosciences, School of Electrical Engineering,
Aalto University
, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076, Aalto
, Finland
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Harri Lipsanen
Harri Lipsanen
Department of Micro and Nanosciences, School of Electrical Engineering,
Aalto University
, P.O. Box 13500, FI-00076, Aalto
, Finland
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a)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30, 011504 (2012)
Article history
Received:
April 06 2011
Accepted:
September 30 2011
Citation
Alexander Perros, Markus Bosund, Timo Sajavaara, Mikko Laitinen, Lauri Sainiemi, Teppo Huhtio, Harri Lipsanen; Plasma etch characteristics of aluminum nitride mask layers grown by low-temperature plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition in SF6 based plasmas. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 1 January 2012; 30 (1): 011504. https://doi.org/10.1116/1.3664306
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