Ion Trajectory Control in Processing Plasmas for Nano-Fabrication

Abstract

To realize ion trajectory control in processing plasmas for nano-fabrication, we applied amplitude modulation (AM) discharges to control of ion trajectory in high aspect trenches. We investigated behavior of incident ions in AR25 (aspect ratio = 25) trench structure in AM discharges using data of Ar+ ion with ion energy and ion angular distribution functions (IEDF and IADF) on the substrate obtained by the PIC-MCC model. AM discharges have higher ion flux onto the trench sidewalls than the continuous waveform (CW) discharges, whereas AM discharges have almost the same ion energy as CW ones. SRIM simulation results suggest that AM discharges can desorb more hydrogen atoms from TEOS-PECVD SiO2 films on the trench sidewall than CW ones, which explains the previous results of improved SiO2 film quality on trench sidewall by AM discharges.