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Chemical sputtering of silicon by F/sup +/, Cl/sup +/, and Br/sup +/ ions: Reactive spot model for reactive ion etching

Journal Article · · J. Vac. Sci. Technol., B; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1116/1.583404· OSTI ID:5935508
Chemical sputtering yields of silicon resulting from the incidence of isotopically pure /sup 19/F/sup +/, /sup 35/Cl/sup +/, and /sup 81/Br/sup +/ ion beams were measured in the 100--3000 eV energy range. It is found for these cases that the chemical sputtering yields saturate in the high energy range of more than 600 eV. The saturated yields (atoms/ion) are 0.18 for F/sup +//Si, 0.45 for Cl/sup +//Si, and 0.23 for Br/sup +//Si. The yields increased with increasing ion energy in the 100--500 eV region with different slopes. The steepest slope is observed for the case of Br/sup +//Si, and the smallest is the F/sup +//Si case. This difference in the slope indicates that the chemical reaction between Br/sup +/ and Si cannot be activated without high acceleration of Br/sup +/, and the same occurs for Cl/sup +//Si. On the other hand the F/sup +/ ion is assumed to react with Si with a relatively high probability even when the energy is low. On the basis of these results, a reactive spot model is proposed for the ion-assisted chemical etching process. A generalized method to get anisotropic profiles is also presented for reactive ion etching of Si with fluorine-, chlorine-, and bromine-containing gases.
Research Organization:
Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd., Kokubunji, Tokyo 185, Japan
OSTI ID:
5935508
Journal Information:
J. Vac. Sci. Technol., B; (United States), Journal Name: J. Vac. Sci. Technol., B; (United States) Vol. 4:2; ISSN JVTBD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English