An approach to reduce surface charging with cryogenic plasma etching using hydrogen-fluoride contained gases

Shih‐Nan Hsiao; Makoto Sekine; Kenji Ishikawa; Yuki Iijima; Yoshinobu Ohya; Masaru Hori

doi:10.1063/5.0173553

journal article Nov 20, 2023

An approach to reduce surface charging with cryogenic plasma etching using hydrogen-fluoride contained gases

Shih‐Nan Hsiao

Makoto Sekine Kenji Ishikawa

Yuki Iijima Yoshinobu Ohya Masaru Hori

Applied Physics Letters Vol. 123 No. 21 · AIP Publishing

View at Publisher Save 10.1063/5.0173553

Abstract

The surface conductivity influences the etched pattern profiles in the plasma process. In the dielectric film etching, it is vital to reduce the charging build-up, which bends the trajectory of incoming ions for highly anisotropic etching. A significant increase in surface electric conductivity of SiO2 films was observed when exposed to down-flow plasmas containing hydrogen fluoride (HF) at cryogenic temperature (−60 °C). This phenomenon can be attributed to two factors: (i) the absorption of HF and/or its compounds and (ii) the presence of H2O, which is likely originating from the etching by-product of SiO2 and/or within the reactor. Comparing the surface electric resistance of the samples treated with HF plasmas to that of CF4/H2 and C4F8/H2 plasmas, we found that HF plasma treatment enables to be approximately three and six orders of magnitude lower. By using in situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, it was revealed that the presence of HF and/or its compounds and H2O were absorbed on the sample surface at −60 °C. These results strongly suggest that the cryogenic plasma etching with HF-contained gases can be used to alleviate the charge build-up issues.

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Details

Published: Nov 20, 2023
Vol/Issue: 123(21)

Authors

S

Shih‐Nan Hsiao

Center for Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University 1 , Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

M

Makoto Sekine

Center for Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University 1 , Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

K

Kenji Ishikawa

Center for Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University 1 , Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

Y

Yuki Iijima

Tokyo Electron. Miyagi Ltd, Techno-Hills 2 , Taiwa-cho, Kurokawa-gun, Miyagi 981-3629, Japan

Y

Yoshinobu Ohya

Tokyo Electron. Miyagi Ltd, Techno-Hills 2 , Taiwa-cho, Kurokawa-gun, Miyagi 981-3629, Japan

M

Masaru Hori

Center for Low-temperature Plasma Sciences, Nagoya University 1 , Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

Cite This Article

Shih‐Nan Hsiao, Makoto Sekine, Kenji Ishikawa, et al. (2023). An approach to reduce surface charging with cryogenic plasma etching using hydrogen-fluoride contained gases. Applied Physics Letters, 123(21). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0173553

An approach to reduce surface charging with cryogenic plasma etching using hydrogen-fluoride contained gases

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