No abstract

Pulsed rf plasmas show promise to overcome challenges for plasma etching at future technological nodes. In pulsed plasmas, it is important to characterize the transient phenomena to optimize plasma processing of materials. In particular, it is important to evaluate the effect of the ion energy and angular distribution (IEAD) functions during pulsing on etching of nanoscale features. In this work, the impact of simultaneous pulsing of both source and bias in an inductively coupled plasma on plasma characteristics and feature profile evolution is discussed using results from a two-dimensional reactor scale plasma model coupled to a Monte Carlo based feature profile model. Results are discussed for an Ar∕Cl2 gas mixture which is typically used for poly-Si etching. The consequences of duty cycle, pulse shape, and the phase lag between source and bias power pulses on discharge characteristics, IEADs to the wafer, and feature profile evolution are discussed. The low plasma density during the initial period of the pulse was found to introduce a high energy tail component to the IEADs. This high energy tail component can be affected by modifying the pulse shape. The Si etching rate is found to increase with increasing duty cycle but is lower compared to continuous mode of operation due to lower time averaged power deposition. Pulsing the source and bias out of phase provides for increased ion energies and fluxes to the wafer for a given duty cycle.

A molecular-dynamics-based model has been developed to understand etching of amorphous SiO2, with and without a fluorocarbon reactive layer, by energetic fluorocarbon (CFx+) ions. The model includes a representation of the solid and a set of interatomic potentials required for the SiO2–CFx interaction system. Two- and three-body pseudopotentials have either been obtained from published literature or computed using ab initio techniques. The Stillinger–Weber potential construct is used to represent potentials in our model and particle trajectories are advanced using the velocity-Verlet algorithm. The model is validated by comparing computed bond lengths and energies with published experimental results. Computed yield for Ar+ ion sputtering of SiO2 is also compared with published data. In the computational results described in this article, the model SiO2 test structure (with a thin fluorocarbon reactive layer) is prepared by starting with α-quartz ([001] orientation) and bombarding it with 50-eV CF2+ ions. Energetic CF2+ ions with different energies and angles of impact are then bombarded on this test structure to determine ion etch characteristics. Results show that etch yield increases with ion energy for all angles of impact. Etch yield, however, exhibits a nonlinear dependence on angle of impact with a peak around 60°. This nonlinear behavior is attributed to the balance among fraction of incident ion energy deposited in the material, ion energy deposition depth, and direction of scattering during secondary interaction events. Si in the lattice is primarily etched by F atoms and the primary Si-containing etch by-products are SiFx and SiOxFy radicals. However, oxygen either leaves the test structure as atomic O or in combination with C. While fragments of the energetic incident ion retain a substantial fraction of incident ion energy on ejection from the surface, etch by-products that have their origin in test structure atoms only have a few eV of energy on exit. Etch results are sensitive to fluorocarbon layer characteristics and etch yields decrease as the fluorocarbon reactive layer thickens.

Pulsed rf plasmas are increasingly being employed for plasma etching at future technological nodes. Although the plasma uniformity usually improves with pulsing, the lower time-averaged power decreases the etch rate and the lower throughput is undesirable. It is therefore important to evaluate different strategies to restore higher etch rates while retaining the advantages of pulsed plasmas. In this work, the impact of varying pulsing modes in an inductively coupled plasma on plasma characteristics and feature profile evolution are discussed using the results from a two-dimensional reactor scale plasma model coupled to a Monte Carlo based feature profile model. Results are discussed for poly-Si etching in an Ar/Cl2 gas mixture. The consequences of source-only and bias-only pulsing modes on discharge characteristics, ion energy distributions (IEDs) to the wafer, and feature profile evolution are discussed. Although the etch depth rates were found to be higher for source-only pulsing compared to the synchronized (source and bias) pulsing mode, the higher ion energies in the afterglow period during source-only pulsing may also increase ion bombardment damage. Compensation of power may allow for increased etch depth rates while retaining the benefits of synchronized pulsing. Further, power compensation level can be varied to achieve fine tuning of the IEDs to the wafer.