Atomistic simulations of plasma process-induced Si substrate damage - Effects of substrate bias-power frequency

Plasma-induced defect generation process in crystalline Si structure was simulated by classical molecular dynamics simulations. Energy distribution functions of Ar and Cl ions incident on the Si surface (IEDF) were implemented to predict the impacts on the defect generation processes in present-day plasma process equipments. The damaged-layer thickness was confirmed to be a weak function of IEDF, which are consistent with a binary-collision-based range model and experimental results. In the case of “fin-gate structure”, the simulation results predict that the sidewall may be damaged not by the incident angular distribution of ions but by the straggling of high-energy ions near the reaction surface, which leads to an on-current degradation of FinFETs.