AVS 49th International Symposium
    Plasma Science Monday Sessions
       Session PS-MoM

Paper PS-MoM8
Energetic Neutral Fluxes Towards Surfaces in a MERIE Like Reactor

Monday, November 4, 2002, 10:40 am, Room C-105

Session: Conductor Etch I
Presenter: W. Sabisch, Infineon Technologies AG, Germany
Authors: W. Sabisch, Infineon Technologies AG, Germany
M. Kratzer, Infineon Technologies AG, Germany
R.P. Brinkmann, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
In VLSI microelectronics fabrication Magnetically Enhanced Reactive Ion Etch (MERIE) reactors are established for many dry etch processes. One example is the etch of high aspect ratio capacitor trenches.@footnote 1@ For feature scale profile evolution the angularly and energetically resolved distributions of the surfaces incident particles (ions and neutrals) as well as the fluxes of ions and neutrals play an essential role. Butterbaugh et al.@footnote 2@ showed that the etch yield for the selective SiO@sub 2@ / Si etch is strongly influenced by the ratio of neutral to ion fluxes. The focus of this work is set on the calculation of the neutral to ion fluxes ratio. Therefore the MERIE reactor's boundary sheath is simulated by the TCAD simulation tool Hybrid Plasma Sheath Model (HPSM).@footnote 3,4@ HPSM consists of a self-consistent coupling of a fluid dynamical part to a Monte-Carlo part. Sheath and presheath region are described in one unified model. Energetic neutrals impinging the surface can be monitored in addition to the positive ion species. Presented are simulations with parameters typical for a trench etch with pressures in the range of about 100 mTorr, rf voltages of a few 100 Vs, magnetic fields of about 100 Gauss and plasma powers of about 1000 W. The simulations show that the flux of the energetic neutrals compared to the flux of the ions is not neglectable and that the neutral flux gives an important contribution to the energy budget of the surface impinging particles. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ J. Bondur, R. Bucknall, F. Redeker, and J. Su: Proc. of the SPIE 1992, vol. 1803, pp. 45ff @footnote 2@ J.W. Butterbaugh, D.C. Gray, and H.H. Sawin: JVST B, vol. 34, 1991, pp. 1461ff @footnote 3@ M. Kratzer and R.P. Brinkmann: The IEEE Int. Conf. on Plasma Science 2000, 3D03 @footnote 4@ M. Kratzer, R.P. Brinkmann, W. Sabisch, and H. Schmidt: JAP, vol. 90 (5), 2001, pp. 2169 ff.