DOE study on etching rate of silicon nitride (Si<inf>3</inf>N<inf>4</inf>) layer via RIE nitride etching process

Abstract

In the electronic device fabrication, etching is one of the important processes to do. For this work, the dry etching was done to silicon nitride layer under a CF 4 / O 2 gas mixture using reactive ion etching (RIE) process has been investigated. This etching process was carried out at a room temperature with gas pressure of 500 mTorr, RF power of 60-80 W, O 2 and CF 4 flow rate of 5-10 seem and 40-50 seem respectively. From the process, a statistical method of Design of Experiment (DOE) Pro XL software was utilized for appropriate analysis.

Surface micromachining of a micro electromechanical inertial transducer based on commercially available Floating Gate Transistor technology

“…Process C. To perform the RIE micromachining, a bare die was placed in the plasma chamber of a RIE3000 apparatus (South Bay Technology). Etching process time, power and pressure were set constantly at 120 minutes at 110 W and 100 mTorr, respectively [11,13,14], in a CF 4 /O 2 atmosphere. The die was then inspected.…”