AVS 51st International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session PS-MoP

Paper PS-MoP27
Instabilities of Nanoporous Silica (NPS) During Plasma-Based Pattern Transfer and Subsequent Resist Stripping

Monday, November 15, 2004, 5:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: X. Hua, University of Maryland, College Park
Authors: X. Hua, University of Maryland, College Park
T. Kwon, University of Maryland, College Park
R. Phaneuf, University of Maryland, College Park
G. Oehrlein, University of Maryland, College Park
P. Lazzeri, ITC-irst, Italy
M. Anderle, ITC-irst, Italy
P. Jiang, Texas Instruments, Inc.
C.K. Inoki, University at Albany, SUNY
T.S. Kuan, University at Albany, SUNY
Correspondent: Click to Email
We have investigated several instabilities of nanoporous silica associated with the fluorocarbon plasma-based transfer of resist masks and subsequent removal of the resist mask. Novel phenomena that are absent during plasma exposure of a homogeneous material, e.g. SiO@sub 2@, are observed for NPS materials as a result of the changes in the plasma surface interactions. These include changes in the morphology of near surface pores along with plasma-process dependent surface roughening of the NPS etching front. The instabilities are dependent on of both the plasma properties and NPS characteristics, e.g. overall porosity. The physical mechanisms giving rise to these instabilities in fluorocarbon-based plasma will be discussed based on plasma and surface characterization results. Resist mask removal can lead to deep modifications of NPS materials, e.g. carbon loss and an increased dielectric constant. We have investigated the potential of direct and remote plasmas fed with N@sub 2@/H@sub 2@/O@sub 2@ precursor gas mixtures and substrate temperature to maximize resist removal rate while minimizing NPS materials modifications.