Paper PS-ThP19
From Plasma Reactor to Surface Level: Linking Plasma with Feature Profile Simulations

Thursday, October 22, 2015, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Competitiveness in semiconductors industry is based on the ability to quickly integrate advanced technologies in products and optimise manufacturing processes. Only a coherent preparation of these processes allows companies to design successful products. One of the most important steps in the production of semiconductors is the treatment of surfaces by means of plasma processing. The resulting surface profiles usually depend on process parameters such as power or pressure in a non-linear way and are hard to predict. Simulations of plasmas on reactor scale and feature scale modelling of the surface reactions are an alternative to trial and error, saving costs and providing insights in the physical processes. Such simulations require solid input data. In case of plasma simulations, the process parameters are needed; Feature scale models require the flux distributions of particles to the processed surfaces. These flux distributions must be obtained either experimentally, which is not always possible and reliable. Or they are taken from simulations, which requires the output from the plasma simulation to be compatible with the input for the feature scale model. We aim to simplify these investigations by linking two software packages: Quantemol-VT (Q-VT) by Quantemol Ltd. and Sentaurus Topography 3D by Synopsys. Q-VT is a 2D plasma simulation tool, based on the Hybrid Plasma Equipment Model (HPEM) by Mark Kushner [1], which allows the simulation of plasmas in industrial tools on reactor scale level for a wide range of process parameters. The graphical interface of Q-VT allows for an easy setup of HPEM simulations for diverse chamber designs. As a result, Q-VT produces flux distributions of species relevant for surface reactions as a function of both the energy and the angle. These distributions are used as input for Sentaurus Topography 3D, a three dimensional TCAD feature scale etching and deposition simulator for plasma processes used in semiconductor manufacturing: PMC (particle Monte-Carlo) module which is controlled by a set of user-defined surface reactions simulates different phenomena such as adsorption and re-emission, ion reflection, ion-enhanced chemical and physical sputtering, and re-deposition of reaction products, predicting different effects of interest such as micro loading, bowing, micro trenching etc. Linking these two simulations allows comprehensive studies of surface profiles without any additional steps. The validation of the linked tools is currently under progress by comparing its results with published data on common surface processes. First results will be presented.