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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received September 22, 2019
Accepted December 1, 2019

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Si3N4 etch rates at various ion-incidence angles in high-density CF4, CHF3, and C2F6 plasmas

Jun-Hyun Kim Chang-Koo Kim^1†

Institute of NT-IT Fusion Technology, Ajou University, 206 Worldcup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 16499, Korea ¹Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, 206 Worldcup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 16499, Korea

changkoo@ajou.ac.kr

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, February 2020, 37(2), 374-379(6), 10.1007/s11814-019-0449-x

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Abstract

The behavior of Si3N4 etching with ion-incidence angle in high-density CF4, CHF3, and C2F6 plasmas was investigated to understand the effect of discharge chemistry on the etch characteristics of Si3N4. The normalized etch yield (NEY) plots suggest that for all plasmas considered herein, physical sputtering is more prevalent than ion-assisted chemical etching as the Si3N4 etching mechanism. In the cases of the CF4 and C2F6 plasmas, the NEYs at an ion-incidence angle of 60° were greater than unity because the thickness and the fluorine-to-carbon (F/C) ratio of the steadystate fluorocarbon films (st-st FC films) on the Si3N4 surfaces decreased and increased, respectively, as the ion-incidence angle was increased from 0° to 60°. In contrast, the NEY at this angle in the CHF3 plasma was close to unity, as a result of a small change (or a very marginal decrease) in the thickness and the F/C ratio of the st-st FC film. Additionally, the NEY at an ion-incidence angle of 60° was higher in C2F6 plasma compared to CF4 plasma because the changes in the thickness and the F/C ratio of the st-st FC film were greater in the C2F6 plasma than those in the CF4 plasma.

Keywords

Si3N4 Etching Ion-incidence Angle Etching Mechanism Steady-state Fluorocarbon Film

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