Hydrogenated amorphous silicon photoresists for HgCdTe patterning
A process to use a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film as a dry photoresist mask for plasma etching of HgCdTe has been demonstrated. The a-Si:H films were deposited using standard plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition with pure silane as the source gas. X-ray photoelectron spectra show that virtually no oxide grows on the surface of an a-Si:H film after 3 hours in air, indicating that it is hydrogen passivated. Ultraviolet light frees hydrogen from the surface and enhances the oxide growth rate. A pattern of 60 micron square pixels was transferred from a contact mask to the surface of an a-Si:H film by ultraviolet enhanced oxidation in air. For the conditions used, the oxide thickness was 0.5--1.0 nm. Hydrogen plasmas were used to develop this pattern by removing the unexposed regions of the film. A hydrogen plasma etch selectivity between oxide and a-Si:H of greater than 500:1 allows patterns as thick as 700 nm to be generated with this very thin oxide. These patterns were transferred into HgCdTe by etching in an electron cyclotron resonance plasma. An etch selectivity between a-Si:H and HgCdTe of greater than 4:1 was observed after etching 2,500 nm into the HgCdTe. All of the steps are compatible with processing in vacuum.
- Research Organization:
- Materials Research Group, Inc., Wheat Ridge, CO (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory; US Department of the Army
- OSTI ID:
- 20085570
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Trilayer photoresist definition with high pressure plasmas
Demonstration of pattern transfer into sub-100 nm polysilicon line/space features patterned with extreme ultraviolet lithography