AVS 46th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Division Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS-WeM

Paper PS-WeM9
Analysis and Simulation of Mask Erosion During Dry Etching

Wednesday, October 27, 1999, 11:00 am, Room 609

Session: Feature Profile Evolution
Presenter: J. Westlinder, Uppsala University, Sweden
Authors: J. Westlinder, Uppsala University, Sweden
F. Engelmark, Uppsala University, Sweden
L.B. Jonsson, Uppsala University, Sweden
C. Hedlund, Uppsala University, Sweden
I.V. Katardjiev, Uppsala University, Sweden
H.-O. Blom, Uppsala University, Sweden
Correspondent: Click to Email
In order to do topography simulations, which is an important part of process simulation, the erosion/growth rates of materials exposed to different complex processes must be determined. The erosion of the mask during plasma etching is becoming increasingly important as the feature size continues to shrink. By using anisotropic wet etching of silicon wafers it is possible to create structures defined by specific crystallographic planes. This results in silicon groove structures consisting of 7-10 µm wide planar surfaces which form various angles with respect to the wafer normal. The structures can then be coated with different materials and processed under standard operating conditions. Since only Si wafers are used the method is fully IC production compatible and can be used directly in production systems. The method is used to analyze the erosion of different mask materials. Data for the angular dependence of the etch rate for different dry etching processes like e.g. RIE and ICP and for different mask materials used in IC manufacturing have been obtained and will be presented. The results are used as input data to the topography simulation software DINESE.