A review of line edge roughness and surface nanotexture resulting from patterning processes

Gogolides, Εvangelos; Constantoudis, Vassilios; Patsis, G. P.; Tserepi, Angeliki

doi:10.1016/j.mee.2006.01.162

Cited by 75 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Maintaining control of surface chemistry under conditions where low energy ion bombardment is required may necessitate novel surface and defect passivation schemes to prevent inadvertent changes in surface conditions. Control of plasma-induced surface roughness is another important challenge for processes where either smooth surfaces or controlled surface roughness are desired [55].…”

Section: Advances In Science and Technology To Meet Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2017 Plasma Roadmap: Low temperature plasma science and technology

Adamovich

Baalrud

Bogaerts

et al. 2017

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

815

549

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Section: Advances In Science and Technology To Meet Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2017 Plasma Roadmap: Low temperature plasma science and technology

Adamovich

Baalrud

Bogaerts

et al. 2017

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

815

549

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“…7 Atomic-or nanometer-scale roughness on etched feature surfaces has also become an important issue to be resolved in the fabrication of nanoscale microelectronic devices, because the roughness formed during plasma etching would be comparable to the CD and the thickness of the layer being etched and/or the layer underlying. In gate fabrication, the roughness on feature sidewalls is responsible for the line edge roughness (LER) and line width roughness (LWR), 32,33 which cause the variability in gate or channel length and thus lead to that in transistor performance. 34,35 Moreover, in advanced three-dimensional (3D) device structures such as fin-type field effect transistors (FinFETs), 5,34,36 the effects of the fin as well as the gate LER and LWR become significant, 34 because LER and LWR occur also in the fin etch process, 5,36 and the conducting channel of FinFETs is formed on the top and sidewall surfaces of the fin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[32][33][34][35][36] Sidewall roughening of the feature being etched is assumed to be caused by the pattern transfer of the mask edge roughness (resulting from lithography) into the underlayers being etched and also by that of grain boundaries of polycrystalline films to be etched into themselves. [32][33][34][35][36] In practice, the addition of depositive gas species such as CF 4 and/or reactive gases such as HBr giving depositive etch byproducts is often invoked to control and suppress the sidewall roughness in poly-Si gate and single-crystalline Si (c-Si) fin fabrication processes, 32,36 through etch inhibitor deposition or passivation layer formation on feature sidewalls. On the other hand, the sidewall roughness would also be caused by plasma-surface interactions themselves on feature sidewalls, where the ion incidence is assumed to be off normal or oblique to the surface being etched.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface roughening and rippling during plasma etching of silicon: Numerical investigations and a comparison with experiments

Tsuda¹,

Nakazaki²,

Takao³

et al. 2014

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phen

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Surface loss rates of H and Cl radicals in an inductively coupled plasma etcher derived from time-resolved electron density and optical emission measurementsModeling of fluorine-based high-density plasma etching of anisotropic silicon trenches with oxygen sidewall passivation Atomic-or nanometer-scale surface roughening and rippling during Si etching in high-density Cl 2 and Cl 2 /O 2 plasmas have been investigated by developing a three-dimensional atomic-scale cellular model (ASCeM-3D), which is a 3D Monte Carlo-based simulation model for plasma-surface interactions and the feature profile evolution during plasma etching. The model took into account the behavior of Cl þ ions, Cl and O neutrals, and etch products and byproducts of SiCl x and SiCl x O y in microstructures and on feature surfaces therein. The surface chemistry and kinetics included surface chlorination, chemical etching, ion-enhanced etching, sputtering, surface oxidation, redeposition of etch products desorbed from feature surfaces being etched, and deposition of etch byproducts coming from the plasma. The model also took into account the ion reflection or scattering from feature surfaces on incidence and/or the ion penetration into substrates, along with geometrical shadowing of the feature and surface reemission of neutrals. The simulation domain was taken to consist of small cubic cells of atomic size, and the evolving interfaces were represented by removing Si atoms from and/or allocating them to the cells concerned. Calculations were performed for square substrates 50 nm on a side by varying the ion incidence angle onto substrate surfaces, typically with an incoming ion energy, ion flux, and neutral reactant-to-ion flux ratio of E i ¼ 100 eV, C i 0 ¼ 1.0 Â 10 16 cm À2 s À1 , and C n 0 /C i 0 ¼ 100. Numerical results showed that nanoscale roughened surface features evolve with time during etching, depending markedly on ion incidence angle; in effect, at h i ¼ 0 or normal incidence, concavo-convex features are formed randomly on surfaces. On the other hand, at increased h i ¼ 45 or oblique incidence, ripple structures with a wavelength of the order of 15 nm are formed on surfaces perpendicularly to the direction of ion incidence; in contrast, at further increased h i ! 75 or grazing incidence, small ripples or slitlike grooves with a wavelength of <5 nm are formed on surfaces parallel to the direction of ion incidence. Such surface roughening and rippling in response to ion incidence angle were also found to depend significantly on ion energy and incoming fluxes of neutral reactants, oxygen, and etch byproducts. Two-dimensional power spectral density analysis of the roughened feature surfaces simulated was employed in some cases to further characterize the lateral as well as vertical extent of the roughness. The authors discuss possible mechanisms responsible for the formation and evolution of the surface roughness and ripples during plasma etching, including stochastic roughening, local micromasking, and effects of ion reflection, surface temp...

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“…In fact for polymers plasma nanotexturing can simultaneously achieve optical transparency, antireflectivity and superhydrophobicity (1,9) . We would therefore like to emphasize that contrary to the undesirable effects of "grass" for nanoelectronics, controlled nanotexture formation may be valuable for nanomanufacturing of both large areas as well as devices, when one or more "smart" functionalities may be desired (10) . As the Greeks would say "there is no bad thing without a good side-effect", in other words one should not always cut the grass but rather control its growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling roughness: from etching to nanotexturing and plasma-directed organization on organic and inorganic materials

Gogolides¹,

Constantoudis²,

Kokkoris³

et al. 2011

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

Self Cite

119

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We describe how plasma-wall interactions in etching plasmas lead to either random roughening / nanotexturing of polymeric and Silicon surfaces, or formation of organized nanostructures on such surfaces. We conduct carefully designed experiments of plasma-wall interactions to understand the causes of both phenomena, and present Monte-Carlo simulation results confirming the experiments. We discuss emerging applications in wetting and optical property control, protein adsorption, microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip fabrication and modification, and cost-effective silicon mold fabrication. We conclude with an outlook on the plasma reactor future designs to take advantage of the observed phenomena for new micro and nanomanufacturing processes.

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A review of line edge roughness and surface nanotexture resulting from patterning processes

Cited by 75 publications

References 55 publications

The 2017 Plasma Roadmap: Low temperature plasma science and technology

The 2017 Plasma Roadmap: Low temperature plasma science and technology

Surface roughening and rippling during plasma etching of silicon: Numerical investigations and a comparison with experiments

Controlling roughness: from etching to nanotexturing and plasma-directed organization on organic and inorganic materials

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