Modeling of photoresist erosion in plasma etching processes

Author

Zhang, Da ; Rauf, Shahid ; Sparks, Terry

Author_Institution

DigitalDNA Labs., Motorola Inc., Austin, TX, USA

Volume

30

Issue

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

114

Lastpage

115

Abstract

A set of surface reaction mechanisms has been developed to predict photoresist (PR) erosion in a high density Ar-c-C₄F₈ plasma. The mechanisms include angle and energy dependent ion sputtering, ion activation, and atomic F etching of activated surface species. An integrated plasma equipment and feature profile model was used to simulate these mechanisms. The simulation results show faceted profile evolution for the PR due to preferential ion sputtering at the incident angle to the facet. The faceting also occurs on small defective surface pits, leading to expansion of the defect size. Comparison between simulated and experimental profiles shows good agreement

Keywords

photoresists; plasma materials processing; sputter etching; surface chemistry; wear; activated surface species; atomic F etching; defect size; defective surface pits; faceted profile evolution; gas discharges; high density Ar-c-octafluorobutene plasma; ion activation; ion sputtering; photoresist erosion; plasma applications; plasma etching processes; plasma materials-processing applications; profile model; surface reaction mechanisms; Inductors; Plasma applications; Plasma density; Plasma materials processing; Plasma simulation; Plasma sources; Resists; Semiconductor device modeling; Sputter etching; Sputtering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2002.1003950

Filename

1003950