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Reactive interactions in plasma etching have been investigated. Simple gas-phase transport of etchants and the reaction by-products in the wafer near-surface area are discussed. A new reincidence parameter, determined with a proposed near-surface model, was used to formulate metal etch rates. The experimental results obtained from an electron cyclotron resonance microwave plasma etching system revealed that the measured etching rate agreed well with those obtained by the near-surface model. It was found that reaction by-products repeatedly arrived at the surface depending on the reincidence numbers for the metal etching. The reincidence is the result of the diffusional transport in the vicinity of the wafer and is given by the expression {(one-half of the wafer radius)/(mean-free path)}. The ratio of the by-product flux is expressed by the product of the etching-rate flux times the reincidence number. Then, the resulting ratio of the reaction products in the flux becomes very high when we compare it to th...

This paper describes short‐gas‐residence‐time electron cyclotron resonance plasma etching for high etch rates, reduced contamination, and highly anisotropic etching. The new high‐gas‐flow‐rate (high‐flow) etching system is demonstrated with effective‐pumping rate of 2500 l/s. This method produces very high etch rate while maintaining high anisotropy at very low gas pressure below 1 mTorr. The high etch rate is due to the reduction of reaction products density because of the very short gas‐residence time of 30 ms. This technique also dramatically reduces the contamination of reaction products. Etching of crystalline Si and n+ polycrystalline Si with the high‐flow etching system is demonstrated. For crystalline Si etching with Cl2, a high etch rate up to 1 μm/min is achieved at a high gas flow rate of 90 sccm at 0.5 mTorr.

Low‐temperature electron‐cyclotron‐resonance microwave plasma etching and reactive ion etching are described for ULSI device fabrication. Highly selective anisotropic etching at a high rate, which implies dry etching without tradeoffs, is performed without changing the discharge parameters. This etching is only achieved at reduced wafer temperatures. The etching mechanism and the model are discussed based on the etching yield results obtained by the mass‐selected reactive ion beam etching experiments. The new etching system and the etching properties obtained for the low‐temperature etching are reviewed comparing those obtained in the conventional reactive ion etching and electron‐cyclotron‐resonance microwave plasma etching.

A high-rate-gas-flow plasma etching technique using a very low gas pressure and very high pumping rate is described. The principle of high-flow etching is discussed. A high etch rate of 1300 nm/min at 0.5 mtorr has been obtained for the Cl/sub 2/ ECR high-flow system with a bias of -50 V. Low gas pressure discharge with high flow rate is applicable to VLSI processing. Highly directional, low-contamination etching is possible using this etching system. >

Novel short‐gas‐residence‐time electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma etching is described. Using a newly equipped high‐pumping‐rate etching system (5000 l/s), we obtained a high etch rate and high anisotropic etching of silicon at low pressure and high gas flow rate. The residence time obtained was 30 ms. The silicon etch rate with Cl2 dramatically increased up to 1 μm/min as the gas flow rate increased to 90 sccm at 0.5 mTorr. It was proven by plasma emission measurement that the reaction products were minimized by the present method. These results indicate that the short‐gas residence time produces a small amount of reaction products and a large amount of etching species.

Low-temperature microwave plasma etching of crystalline silicons is described. Vertical and lateral etch rates of Si and the selectivities of Si to photoresist are measured as a function of water temperature within a range of -150 to +30° for SF6, and (3) the selectivities become high at low temperatures (e.g., >40 at -90°C and 2.3 Pa). This etching enables highly anisotropic Si etching at a high etch rate and high selectivity with fluoride gases. Less-polymerizing-type gases can provide high etch rates. An etching model of the ion-bombarded surfaces in discussed. The model implies that separate control of the side wall reaction and the horizontal surface reaction is archived by the low-temperature etching.

A new low‐temperature reactive ion etching and microwave plasma etching method is described. Highly anisotropic silicon etching with extremely small width shifts has been performed with high selectivities of 30 for organic resist films. High etch rates of 500 and 1000 nm/min by reactive ion etching and microwave plasma etching, respectively, were achieved with a SF6 gas plasma at low wafer temperatures from −130 to −100 °C. It is concluded that lower temperatures during plasma treatment yield lower side etching and increase the dry etch resistance of organic masks.