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

Paper PS-MoP3
The Study of Atomic Layer Etching Mechanism for Si with Various Substrate Orientations

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

Session: Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: S.D. Park, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
Authors: S.D. Park, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
C.K. Oh, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
M.S. Kim, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
G.Y. Yeom, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Atomic layer etching (ALET) can be an indispensable method in the fabrication of future devices such as nano-scale devices, quantum devices etc., because current etch technology utilizing reactive ion etching dose not have precise etch rate controllability and tends to damage the surface of the devices physically and electrically due to the use of energetic reactive ions to achieve vertical etch profiles. Generally, ALET of Si is composed of a cyclic process consisted of 4 steps; (1) adsorption of Cl@sub2@ on the Si surface, (2) evacuation, (3) Ar@super+@ ion beam irradiation to the substrate surface for desorption, (4) evacuation of the etch products. But, if Ar@super+@ ion beam is used for the desorption, the etched substrate can be charge damaged due to the charged particles such as positive ions and photons generated in the plasma. In this study, the ALET of Si was carried out for the first time using an Ar neutral beam instead of the Ar@super+@ ion beam to avoid charge-related damage during the desorption of halide and its ALET characteristics of Si by Cl@sub2@ were investigated. Especially, the ALET of Si having different orientations were investigated to understand the silicon etch rate per cycle.