Low damage, highly anisotropic dry etching of SiC
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Royal Inst. of Tech., Kista (Sweden)
- New Jersey Inst. of Tech., Newark, NJ (United States)
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
A parametric study of the etching characteristics of 6H p{sup +} and n{sup +} SiC and thin film SiC{sub 0.5}N{sub 0.5} in Inductively Coupled Plasma NF{sub 3}/O{sub 2} and NF{sub 3}/Ar discharges has been performed. The etch rates in both chemistries increase monotonically with NF{sub 3} percentage and rf chuck power. The etch rates go through a maximum with increasing ICP source power, which is explained by a trade-off between the increasing ion flux and the decreasing ion energy. The anisotropy of the etched features is also a function of ion flux, ion energy and atomic fluorine neutral concentration. Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) masks display relatively good etch selectivity over SiC (maximum of {approximately} 70:1), while photoresist etches more rapidly than SiC. The surface roughness of SiC is essentially independent of plasma composition for NF3/O2 discharges, while extensive surface degradation occurs for SiCN under high NF{sub 3}:O{sub 2} conditions.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Financial Management and Controller, Washington, DC (United States); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, VA (United States); Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 650321
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-98-0662C; CONF-980622-; ON: DE98004235; TRN: AHC2DT04%%234
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 4. international high temperature electronics conference, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 14-19 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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