Dry etching trends in flat panel display processing

Summary form only given, as follows. Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD) market is projected to quadruple in size by the next millennium. Within the last year, the flat panel display (FPD) marketplace has been very dynamic and the product requirements are evolving rapidly towards larger size, higher resolution, lower power consumption and at ever lower price targets. These market forces are driving FPD process technology innovations at a breathtaking pace. For FPD processing, dry etching is in an analogous position to that in IC processing back in the early 80s when the industry was posed to make the transition from wet to dry etch. Up to now, dry etching has only seen widespread manufacturing applications in Si and SiN processing. Within the last year, both Applied Komatsu Technology (AKT) and Lam Research (LRC) have introduced next generation FPD dry etch cluster tools. These tools offer improved process characteristics and enhanced capability that present many new opportunities to apply dry etching to FPD processing. In the next couple of years, dry etching will be a key enabler for architectural innovation. In the paper, these new dry etch processes and their applications in FPD display are reviewed.