A novel route to achieve an ideal plasma-enhanced atomic layer etching of silicon dioxide with self-limiting deposition and area-selective feature over silicon nitride is demonstrated in this work using a silane coupling agent and argon plasma. While monitoring the film thickness of silicon dioxide, self-limiting characteristics in both modification and etching steps are attained. Moreover, the dosing step revealed the selective formation of a modification layer on the oxide over the nitride film. In situ infrared spectroscopy results suggest the surface functionalization of the hydroxyl terminal groups of the oxide with the silane coupling agent to form the self-limiting modification layer at a relatively low substrate temperature. Compared to the previously reported fluorocarbon precursors, a higher etch yield for SiO2 was calculated, showing a promising option to meet the increasing demands in semiconductor production.
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December 2022
Research Article|
October 31 2022
Area-selective plasma-enhanced atomic layer etching (PE-ALE) of silicon dioxide using a silane coupling agent
Special Collection:
Atomic Layer Etching (ALE)
Airah P. Osonio
;
Airah P. Osonio
a)
(Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft)
1
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: osonio.airah.peraro.g6@s.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
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Takayoshi Tsutsumi
;
Takayoshi Tsutsumi
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing)
1
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
2
Center of Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
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Yoshinari Oda;
Yoshinari Oda
(Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft)
1
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
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Bablu Mukherjee
;
Bablu Mukherjee
(Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing)
3
ASM Japan K.K.
, 23-1, 6-chome Nagayama, Tama, Tokyo 206-0025, Japan
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Ranjit Borude
;
Ranjit Borude
(Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing)
3
ASM Japan K.K.
, 23-1, 6-chome Nagayama, Tama, Tokyo 206-0025, Japan
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Nobuyoshi Kobayashi;
Nobuyoshi Kobayashi
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Visualization, Writing – review & editing)
2
Center of Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
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Masaru Hori
Masaru Hori
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Visualization, Writing – review & editing)
1
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
2
Center of Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University
, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: osonio.airah.peraro.g6@s.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Note: This paper is part of the 2023 Special Topic Collection on Atomic Layer Etching (ALE).
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 40, 062601 (2022)
Article history
Received:
June 28 2022
Accepted:
September 21 2022
Citation
Airah P. Osonio, Takayoshi Tsutsumi, Yoshinari Oda, Bablu Mukherjee, Ranjit Borude, Nobuyoshi Kobayashi, Masaru Hori; Area-selective plasma-enhanced atomic layer etching (PE-ALE) of silicon dioxide using a silane coupling agent. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 1 December 2022; 40 (6): 062601. https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0002044
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