Thin oxide charging current during plasma etching of aluminum

CV measurement is shown to be a more sensitive technique for characterizing plasma-etching induced damage than oxide breakdown. Plasma etching of Al is shown to produce severe distortions in the oxide CV characteristics, from which one can easily deduce the plasma charging current over many orders of magnitude. A clear radial variation of stressing is found and the charging current increases in proportion to the Al peripheral length rather than the area. Using the measured 10-pA/ mu m of the charging current, one should be able to predict the impact of this etch process on oxide integrity and interface stability for a given antenna geometry.<>