AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session PS-MoP

Paper PS-MoP26
Low Damage Etching of III-V Semiconductors using a Low Angle Forward Reflected Neutral Beam

Monday, October 31, 2005, 5:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall C&D

Session: Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: B.J. Park, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
Authors: B.J. Park, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
K.S. Min, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
H.C. Lee, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
J.W. Bae, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
G.Y. Yeom, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
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Plasma etching is essential in the fabrication of compound semiconductor devices due to the requirements of anisotropic profiles and submicron features for optoelectronic integrated circuits, microwave devices, lasers, etc. Any process-related damage such as electrical damage and surface modification remaining during the processing may cause serious problems due to the size limitation of the devices. Therefore, etch processes without or negligible damages are required. In this study, fluorine based directional neutral beams were formed by low angle reflection of the energetic directional fluorine-based reactive ion beams generated by a fluorine-based inductively coupled plasma (ICP) gun. GaAs and GaN were etched and their etch characteristics such as etch rates and etch damage due to the etching were investigated. As a comparison, GaAs and GaN were etched by a conventional ICP and their damage characteristics were compared. When dry etch damage of the etched GaAs and GaN were investigated using PL and PRS, no damage could be observed when the neutral beam etching was used while the GaAs and GaN etched by the ICP showed significant surface damage. No damage by the energetic neutral beam etching appears to be related to the insignificant reaction of the neutrals with the electrically active surface states during the etching.