Absolute intensities of the vacuum ultraviolet spectra in a metal-etch plasma processing discharge
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1423 (United States)
In this article we report absolute intensities of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and near ultraviolet emission lines (4.8{endash}18 eV) for discharges used to etch aluminum in a commercial inductively coupled plasma reactor. We report line intensities as functions of wafer type, pressure, gas mixture, and radio frequency excitation level. In a standard aluminum etching mixture containing Cl{sub 2} and BCl{sub 3} almost all the light emitted at energies exceeding 8.8 eV was due to neutral atomic chlorine. Optical trapping of the VUV radiation in the discharge complicates calculations of VUV fluxes to the wafer. However, we measured total photon fluxes to the wafer at energies above 8.8 eV on the order of 4{times}10{sup 14}&hthinsp;photons/cm{sup 2}&hthinsp;s with a nonreactive wafer and 0.7{times}10{sup 14}&hthinsp;photons/cm{sup 2}&hthinsp;s with a reactive wafer. The majority of the radiation was between 8.9 and 9.3 eV. At these energies, the photons have enough energy to create electron-hole pairs in SiO{sub 2} and may penetrate up to a micron into the SiO{sub 2} before being absorbed. Relevance of these measurements to VUV photon-induced damage of SiO{sub 2} during etching is discussed. {copyright} {ital 1999 American Vacuum Society.}
- OSTI ID:
- 698837
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, A, Journal Name: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, A Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 17; ISSN 0734-2101; ISSN JVTAD6
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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