Effects of plasma etching chemistry and post-processing on the mechanical adhesion and electrical contact of double polysilicon layer structures

Double polysilicon layer structures separated by a silicon nitride layer are frequently used as structural multilayers in surface micromachining. In this paper the effect of three types of plasma etching chemistries for nitride patterning and post-processing on the characteristics of both mechanical adhesion and electrical contact resistance between the two polysilicon layers is investigated. It was found that all three chemistries yielded good mechanical adhesion between the two polysilicon layers. Both the chemistry based on CF₄ /SF₆, with a poor selectivity (0.7) of etching nitride over the underlying polysilicon layer, and the chemistry based on CHF ₃/CF₄, with a selectivity of 3, provided good electrical contact. The chemistry based on CHF₃/N₂, which yielded a selectivity of 15, on the other hand, resulted in a polymer film between the two polysilicon layers, resulting in electrical insulation. This polymer film can be effectively removed by using post-processing, which involves in-situ oxygen plasma treatment. Therefore, a chemistry such as that based on CHF₃/CF₄ can be applied when the lower polysilicon thickness allows a moderate selectivity, whereas the CHF₃/N ₂ chemistry is favored when high-selectivity is required. The latter, however, requires in-situ post-processing