AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Plasma Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session PS+EM-MoA

Paper PS+EM-MoA3
Improvement of Block Copolymer Masked Silicon Etch Profile using Neutral Beam

Monday, October 19, 2015, 3:00 pm, Room 210B

Session: Directed Self Assembly and Plasma Synthesis of Novel Materials
Presenter: Deokhyun Yun, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
Authors: D.H. Yun, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
J.W. Park, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
H.S. Kim, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
G.Y. Yeom, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
These days, bottom-up block copolymer (BCP) lithography is widely investigated as alternative patterning method for deep nanoscale device replacing conventional top-down photolithography. The most widely used BCP material is polystyrene (PS)/polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and, nanoscale PS mask features formed on the substrates after the direct self-assembly are easily damaged by the plasma processing. Previously, neutral beam etching has been used to etch semiconducting materials without surface charging and damaging by using a highly directional radical beam instead of conventional plasma assisted ion beam. In this study, the nano-structured silicon was fabricated for nano-devices such as optical devices and transistor devices using BCP as the mask and the effect of Cl2/Ar neutral beam instead of Cl2/Ar ion beam on the etch characteristics of BCP and silicon was investigated. The use of neutral beam instead of ion beam decreased the degradation of BCP during the etching, therefore, more anisotropic silicon etch profile in addition to the improved etch selectivity of silicon over BCP could be observed. Also, by using the neutral beam instead of ion beam, the improvement of line edge roughness could be obtained.