| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session PS1-TuM |
| Session: | Plasma Sources |
| Presenter: | K. Mavrakakis, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Authors: | K. Mavrakakis, University of Wisconsin-Madison M. Nichols, University of Wisconsin-Madison W. Li, University of Wisconsin-Madison K. Katz, University of Wisconsin-Madison J. McVittie, Stanford University A. Hazeghi, Stanford University S. Banna, Applied Materials Inc. Y. Nishi, Stanford University J.L. Shohet, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Plasma processing is an essential part of modern integrated circuit fabrication. The unique ability of plasmas to etch various materials in an anisotropic way and also to deposit thin films (PE-CVD) has made plasma processing the dominant method of processing modern IC circuits. One of the key problems with plasma exposure of low-k dielectric materials is that processing damage from vacuum ultraviolet emission (VUV) can take place. In order to further investigate the radiation-induced damage to dielectric films, it is important to determine whether different plasma reactors produce significant variations in their generated VUV spectra. In this work, we examine the VUV spectra generated by four unique plasma reactors using argon as the fill gas. They are: electron cyclotron resonance, capacitively coupled, neutral loop/ICP and microwave slot-plane antenna reactors. A McPherson Model 234 VUV monochromator was used for all measurements. The monochromator was fit to each reactor through a sequence of port aligners and collimation systems so that plasma light was well focused on the input slits. The output of the monochromator was focused on a sodium salicylate coating that scintillates in the visible portion of the spectrum and that light was detected by a photomultiplier. It was expected that the emission intensity varied with pressure and microwave power. However, depending on the reactor involved, this is not always the case. The resulting data shows that the emission intensity increases with the decrease of pressure and the increase of microwave power. The interesting result that we obtain is that argon does not always follow that trend over the same pressure and power ranges. As a result, it is important to optimize the processing conditions to minimize the VUV output whenever possible.
This work has been supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under Contract No. 2012-KJ-2359 and by the National Science Foundation under Grant CBET-1066231.