Etching 2014

Etching
ANSHUMAN DALVI
BITS PILANI
IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi 2014
We will focus on
Wet chemical etching
Dry chemical etching
By lithography the patterns are transferred on
substrate
etching is a process after lithography
We remove SiO2 by etching.
IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi 2014
Wet chemical etching
We use solution here

Reaction takes place in solution
Substrate is put in a solution
Steps
Transport of etchant (HF) to the substrate that is to be
etched.
Surface reaction
products of the reaction must be removed from the
surface.
IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi
2014
Step I
If no fresh supply of HF, it gets depleted.
Stagnant layer formation
Process of etching my be limited/is controlled by
diffusion of HF through the stagnant layer.
If reaction is such that there is evolution of gas,
stagnant layer will be broken and there will be no
problem of etchant to meet the surface.
For etching reaction to take place, fresh supply of HF
is a must.
2014
Step 2: The reaction

The reaction of HF is some times
anisotropic
Thus face of the crystal matters.
Details later.

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Etching of Silicon
It is difficult
Thus, two steps are
involved:
(i) Si to SiO2 conversion
(ii) etching the SiO2 out.
If two holes are made
available to Si
This is basic anodic
oxidation
Si 2h
Si
2 H 2O 2 H 2OH
Si
OH Si OH 2
Si OH 2 SiO2 H 2

2014
How does the reaction of etching takes

place?
There is a role of HNO3 as well: HNO
3
oxidizing agent
In HNO3 we have small amount
of HNO2 and its presence is
very critical for the reaction.
Supply of holes for the anodic

reaction is given by NO2finally
HNO2 gets regenerated.
This is autocatalytic reaction.
HNO2 N 2O4 H 2O
N 2O4 2 NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)
2NO 2 2NO 2 2h
Si gets this supply of holes

H 2O H OH
NO 2

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H HNO2
In the beginning we must have supply of

HNO2
This supply is provided by ammonium nitrite
NH4NO2

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Important to notewet
etching
Useful for noncritical processes. Its also a
nondestructive process. Mask is also safe.
100 or 1000 A/min rates are normally
provided.
High etchig rate is generally required, too
high render a process difficult to control.
Excessive particle contamination,
2014
Application of Si etching: (i) porous silicon, (ii)

sensors
Si membrane is prepared by etching for
application to silicon sensor.
A thin membrane of Si will move with
pressure
The membrane is used as a electrode of a
capacitor.
If the membrane of capacitor moves,
capacity will change.
2014
How to control the etching rate?

Anisotropic etching is used.
Control of doping: Heavily doped regions will
be etched slowly.
There are etchants that can etch a particular
surface and can not etch another type of
surface.
2014
Few points to remember

Films can be etched faster than bulk.
Irradiated materials will be etched faster
(exclude ive photo resists).
If there is a non stoichiometry, such system
will be etched faster.
Planes with high PD will be etched slowly
than those having lower PD
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Orientationdependent etching.
(a) Through window
patterns on
<100>-oriented
silicon.
(b) Through window
patterns on
<110>-oriented
silicon.
Wb W0 2l
Etching is
difficult for highly
dense plane.

2014
If etching time is short and window is

large, U type grove will be formed.
If window is small and etching for
long time, V type grove will be
formed.

2014
SiO2 etching
Dilute solution of HF is used.
Or HF+NH4F solution is used.
Adding NH4F refers to as buffer* solution.
Addition controls the PH value.
SiO2 6 HF H 2 SiF6 2 H 2O
Reaction consumes HF, so reaction rate

decreases with time. Thus Buffer solution
is used.
* Buffer solution keeps the PH value constant.
NH 4 F NH 3 HF
2014
Etch rate depends upon
Etchant solution
Etchant con.
impurities in oxide
Agitation
Temperature
Example: High con of P in SiO2 increases the

rate. Loose structure formed by CVD etches out
quickly than that of PVD.
2014
SiO2
Si3N4
Al
Au
Mo
Pt
W
2014
Etch rate uniformity

(max etch rate-min etch rate)/(max
etch rate-min etch rate)}x 100
Calculate for 200 mm dia Si wafer
assuming ER at center, left, right, top
and bottom are 750, 812, 765, 743
and 798 nm/min, respectively.
Ans: 4.4 %

2014
Degree of anisotropy
Isotropic lateral and vertical etch
rates are same.
If hf is thickness of layer material, l
the lateral distance etched
underneath the resist mask, we can
define the degree
ofRanisotropy
(Af)
l
t
R
1
1
A
by
f
hf
Rv t
Rv
2014
Dry etching
Plasma assisted etching

2014

2014
Plasma etching
it denotes the continues removal of
material from a surface by physical
and/or chemical processes.
Etching in a discharge environment is
achieved by providing active species,
which react with the substrate
forming volatile products.
2014
In plasma etching the reactive species

are ions and activated neutrals, created
in an electrical discharge.
The process takes usually place inside
an reactor under well controlled
environmental parameters like
e.g.pressure, temperature and feed
gas flow. In more detail, the etching
process can be divided into four steps
2014
Formation of active gas species.

Transport of the active species to
the surface.
Reaction at the surface.
Pump down of the reaction
products.

2014
Formation of Gas species

The source gas mixture is feed to the
discharge chamber, where it is
partially converted to ions and
reactive neutrals.

2014
Transport of the active

species to the surface.
The active species are created in the
bulk plasma or ion sheaths, from
where they are transported mainly
by diffusion, to the substrate surface.
Charged particles are also influenced
by drift motions due to electric
and/or magnetic fields.

2014
Reaction at the surface.

This step it can be further split into three sub-steps,
namely
the adsorption of the precursors,
the surface reaction
and desorption of the products.
Especially for the reaction sub-step a wide variety of
mechanisms exists. For example, processes that
depends mainly on the energy of the impinging ions
are said to have a big physical component. The
opposite is a chemical etch, where mainly activated
neutrals react with the substrate independent of
their kinetic energy. In practice most processes
have both physical and chemical aspects.
2014
Pump down of the reaction

products
After the desorption the volatile
reaction products diffuse back to the
bulk plasma. Here they exhausted by a
vacuum pump. The different diffusion
directions of etchants and reactions
products are caused by the locations
of the maximum concentration of both
species, which are the bulk plasma
and substrate surface, respectively.
2014

2014
Comparison of
wet chemical
etching and dry
etching for
pattern transfer.

2014

2014
Example Si etching by CF4

method
Known as High pressure plasma etching

500 mTorr pressure gas of CF4
Si-Si bonds to be replaced by Si-F bonds
Si-Si bond breaks at 42 kCal/mol
Formation of Si-F bond releases 17 kcal/mol
CF2, C, F and other redicals are in the
plasma
5 to 10 % neutrals
n 2 kT
Flux strikes on surface with energy J
2M

2014

2014
Ion milling
Involves no chemical reaction, but a
mechanical process. Thus can be used for
variety of materials
Involves noble gases such as argon.
Physical interaction between incident ion
and target atoms
Chamber pressure is very low
Ions are accelerated by a strong vertical
field.
2014
Typical
velocities
with which
the ions
accelerate
is 1000 V.
A magnetic
field is also
applied to
increase
the density
of the ions.
2014
Some issues
Ion milling process erodes the mask.
Uneven etching due to contamination
of residue from the photo resist
mask.
Tilt and possible rotation of target
may avoid such problems
Details: look Campbell.
2014
Ion assisted
chemical
etching

2014

2014

2014

Etching 2014

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Etching

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi 2014

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi 2014

Wet chemical etching

We use solution here

Step 2: The reaction

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

How does the reaction of etching takes

Supply of holes for the anodic

This is autocatalytic reaction.

N 2O4 2 NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)

Si gets this supply of holes

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

In the beginning we must have supply of

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

Application of Si etching: (i) porous silicon, (ii)

How to control the etching rate?

Few points to remember

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

If etching time is short and window is

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

Reaction consumes HF, so reaction rate

Etch rate depends upon

Example: High con of P in SiO2 increases the

Etch rate uniformity

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

In plasma etching the reactive species

Formation of active gas species.

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

Formation of Gas species

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

Transport of the active

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

Reaction at the surface.

Pump down of the reaction

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

Example Si etching by CF4

Known as High pressure plasma etching

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

IC FAB TECH lectures - Prof. A Dalvi

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