AVS 49th International Symposium
    Plasma Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS+NT-WeM

Paper PS+NT-WeM2
RIE processes of Formation of Nanometer-Scale Dot Arrays

Wednesday, November 6, 2002, 8:40 am, Room C-103

Session: Plasma Science and Technology for Nanostructures
Presenter: Y. Zhang, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Authors: Y. Zhang, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
K.W. Guarini, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
E. Sikorski, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
C.T. Black, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
T.J. Dalton, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
Nanometer scale structures are increasingly merging into microelectronics and other applications. One of the challenges of fabricating nanometer scale structures is the simultaneous scaling of vertical and horizontal features. As the horizontal feature scale shrinks down to nanometer sizes, the vertical scale often shrinks at a faster rate. When using these materials for masking layers, this leads to new challenges in fabricating multi-layer nanometer scale structures for a variety of microelectronics applications. In this paper, we explore the challenges of plasma RIE processing to fabricate densely-spaced, uniformly-sized nanometer-scale dot arrays over large wafer areas based on self-organizing diblock copolymers. High selectivties among variety materials, precise CD control, real time process monitoring, and flexible and uniform plasma processing conditions are necessary for fabricating nano-scale structures with high aspect ratios (AR), e.g., ~ 20nm polysilicon hole or column arrays with AR > 15:1. The results show the versatility of RIE process techniques through examples of dot arrays formed of conducting, insulating, and polymeric materials. These fabrication processes vary in complexity, utility, and degree of optimization, and we discuss the relative merits of each. The ability to create uniform nanoscale features below lithographic resolution limits may enable key applications in fields such as magnetic recording and microelectronics.