AVS 46th International Symposium
    Flat Panel Displays Topical Conference Tuesday Sessions
       Session FP+OE+EM-TuA

Paper FP+OE+EM-TuA6
Low Damage Etching Utilizing Activated Hydrogen Beam for ITO Transparent Electrode in Flat Panel Display

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 3:40 pm, Room 604

Session: Thin Film Transistor Materials and Devices
Presenter: T. Miyata, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Authors: T. Miyata, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
T. Minami, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
M. Ishii, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
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Recently, low damage dry etching has become necessary for transparent electrode patterning in flat panel display fabrication. This paper introduces a newly developed low damage and high rate etching technique utilizing an activated hydrogen beam to etch Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) transparent conducting films. The etching was carried out using an apparatus consisting of an etching chamber and an activating chamber interconnected with a 0.9 mm-diameter orifice; the pressure in the activating chamber was higher than that in the etching chamber. The hydrogen gas introduced into the activating chamber was first activated by applying microwave power and then introduced through the orifice into the etching chamber. The etching was accomplished by the activated hydrogen beam acting on patterned photoresist coated ITO films placed on a sample holder. The etching rate was strongly dependent on conditions such as sample temperature, orifice-sample separation and pressure in the etching chamber. It should be noted that the ITO film was only etched at sample temperatures above 160@super o@C and the etching rate increased as the sample temperature was increased. A maximum etching rate above 50 nm/min was obtained at a sample temperature of 220@super o@C. These results suggest that ITO films are mainly etched by chemical reactions.