Dry Etching of ZnO Using an Inductively Coupled Plasma

Abstract

The dry etching characteristics of ZnO using an inductively couple plasma (ICP) have been investigated, for the first time, as functions of plasma chemistry, radio frequency (rf) table power, and ICP power. The CH 4 /H 2 etchant gases resulted in the highest etch rate of ZnO, suggesting that the etching of Zn in ZnO largely involves a process in which a volatile metallorganic zinc compound, such as Zn(CH 3) y is formed. The etch rate was increased with increasing rf table power, and the highest etch rate of 2000 Å/min was achieved at an rf table power of 200 W (dc bias: Ϫ80 V). As the ICP power was increased, the etch rate also increased, which suggests that the plasma density is also an important factor in this process. Furthermore, it was observed that hydrogen-containing plasma etching enhances the band-edge photoluminescence of the ZnO film.

Effect of hydrogen doping in ZnO thin films by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering

“…However, there have not been any follow-up investigations reported. Recently, many researchers motivated by Van de Walle have focused on the hydrogen behavior in ZnO [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Realization of controllable etching for ZnO film by NH4Cl aqueous solution and its influence on optical and electrical properties

“…For the fabrication of devices such as LED and laser diode (LD), mesa formation through controllable and uniform etching process is indispensable if nonconductive substrates were used. As yet, most of the ZnO etch processing were dominated by dry etching because of its controllable etching rate [11][12][13]. Compared with the dry etch, the wet etch technique possesses the advantages of simplicity and low equipment cost.…”

SiCl4-based reactive ion etching of ZnO and MgxZn1−xO films on r-sapphire substrates

“…Some initial dry etching results have been reported for both sputter-deposited ZnO films and bulk ZnO substrates. [5][6][7][8][9] Lee et al 5 reported inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching of magnetron-sputtered ZnO films with CH 4 /H 2 and Cl 2 /H 2 . The high etch rate of CH 4 /H 2 chemistry was suggested due to the low vapor pressure of the expected etch products.…”