AVS 49th International Symposium
    Plasma Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS+TF-WeP

Paper PS+TF-WeP23
Modeling of Etch Profiles in RF biased Inductively Coupled Plasma Etching Reactor

Wednesday, November 6, 2002, 11:00 am, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Plasma Etching & Deposition
Presenter: C.D. Wang, ATMEL
Authors: C.D. Wang, ATMEL
B. Markland, ATMEL
D. Malanaric, ATMEL
E. Brown, ATMEL
D. Galley, ATMEL
B. Abraham-Shrauner, Washington University
R. Hoekstra, Sandia National Laboratories
Correspondent: Click to Email
Knowledge of the ion angular distribution at the wafer plane in an etching plasma is critical for modeling the etching profiles. The etching profile is an evolution of etch surface in time. The evolution equation can be expressed in terms of etch rate. This paper illustrates that the etching profile can be obtained by considering both the ion energy distribution (IED) and ion angular distribution (IAD). These distributions were generated using the Hybrid Plasma Equipment Model and Plasma Chemistry Monte Carlo Model for a Lam TCP plasma etching reactor. The points from the distribution function simulations are divided into different sets in terms of incident angles of ions. Due to the noisy characteristics of simulated data, a smoothing technique is implemented. Each set of smoothed data is fitted with multiple terms of the analytical expression for the drifting Maxwellian distribution functions. These etch rates manifest a proportional relationship with the ion energy flux of experimental evidences by Ding et al.. A statistical optimization technique is utilized here for extracting three parameters: ion temperature, ion density and ion drift energy from each set of the ion drifting Maxwellian distribution functions. By using these crucial parameters, an etch profile is obtained.