AVS 45th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Tuesday Sessions
       Session EM+PS+SE-TuA

Paper EM+PS+SE-TuA8
III-Nitride Dry Etching - Comparison of Inductively Coupled Plasma Chemistries

Tuesday, November 3, 1998, 4:20 pm, Room 316

Session: Plasma Processing of Compound Semiconductors
Presenter: H. Cho, University of Florida, Gainesville
Authors: H. Cho, University of Florida, Gainesville
Y-.B. Hahn, University of Florida, Gainesville
D.C. Hays, University of Florida, Gainesville
C.R. Abernathy, University of Florida, Gainesville
S.M. Donovan, University of Florida, Gainesville
J.D. MacKenzie, University of Florida, Gainesville
S.J. Pearton, University of Florida, Gainesville
J. Han, Sandia National Laboratories
R.J. Shul, Sandia National Laboratories
Correspondent: Click to Email
A detailed comparison of etch rates, etch yields, surface morphology and sidewall anisotropy has been performed for GaN, InN and AlN etched in Inductively Coupled Plasma discharges of BCl@sub 3@, BI@sub 3@, BBr@sub 3@, ICl and IBr. Etch selectivities of 100:1 for InN over GaN and AlN are obtained in BI@sub 3@ due to the relatively high volatility of the InI@sub x@ products and the lower bond strength of InN. The selectivities are much lower in the other chemistries. The etched surfaces of the nitrides are smooth over a broad range of source and chuck powers, pressures and discharge compositions, and there is typically a slight deficiency of N@sub 2@ in the near-surface (@<=@ 100Å) region. The etch yields for all of the chemistries are relatively low (@<=@ 2), indicating that the high ion flux in the ICP tool is a critical factor in obtaining practical etch rates for the nitrides.