Effects of multipolar magnetic fields on the characteristics of plasma and photoresist etching in an internal linear inductively coupled plasma system

The development of a large-area plasma source with high-density plasmas is desired for a variety of plasma processes from microelectronics fabrication to flat panel display device fabrication. In this study, high density (approx. 1011/cm3) and stable plasmas could be obtained by applying multipolar magnetic fields to a linear inductively coupled plasma source having the size of 1020×830 mm. The application of the magnetic fields decreased r.f. antenna voltage by half times and increased photoresist etch rates by three times. The plasma uniformity, which is considered as one of the most important factors in the large area plasma processing, could be maintained lower than 9%.