AVS 51st International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS1-TuM

Paper PS1-TuM8
Advanced Inductive Plasma Etcher for Low-k Materials and Oxide

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 10:40 am, Room 213A

Session: Dielectric Etching
Presenter: G. Vinogradov, FOI Corporation, Japan
Authors: G. Vinogradov, FOI Corporation, Japan
A. Kelly, FOI Corporation, Japan
V.M. Managarishvilil, FOI Corporation, Japan
Y. Hirano, FOI Corporation, Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
A new kind of ICP dielectric etcher has been tested on a variety of materials and patterns and showed produciton worthy results. There is presently only one type of commercial 300-mm equipment for advanced SiO@sub 2@ dry etch: narrow-gap capacitive. Flat inductive plasma sources do not provide radial uniformity in narrow gap designs. An increase of the discharge gap (volume) improves uniformity but substantially increases gas residence time thus decreasing selectivity to photoresist. Another problem is instability of known flat ICP etchers due to capacitive sputtering of the dielectic plate separating ICP coils from plasma volumes. Flat inductive sources, therefore, were not yet successful for advanced oxide etch. A novel inductive narrow-gap 300-mm GroovyICP@super TM@ plasma etcher having substantially flat geometry for advanced etch of low-k materials (organic and inorganic) and oxide in one multiprocess chamber was developed and tested in production. It incorporates three mutually embedded geometrically separate and independently adjustable ring-shape inductive plasma sources designed as annular grooves in a flat roof made of silicon or ceramics. Every coil/plasma ring has independent RF power supply thus achieving controllability over the radial power distribution. Process results obtained with our 300-mm etchers will be presented in order to show principal features and exclusive controllability of the new plasma source and manufacturing tools.