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Method of plasma etching

A plasma etching and etching gas technology, applied in the manufacture of electrical components, discharge tubes, semiconductor/solid-state devices, etc., can solve problems such as product defects and insufficient removal of residues, and achieve the effect of reducing defect density and process time.

Active Publication Date: 2014-05-14
SPTS TECH LTD
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

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Problems solved by technology

However, depending on the level of residue present, this type of breakthrough step may not sufficiently remove residue or damage prior to the main SiC etch step, thus resulting in defects in the etched product

Method used

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  • Method of plasma etching
  • Method of plasma etching
  • Method of plasma etching

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Embodiment Construction

[0030]Figure 3 is a representative diagram of the process of the present invention. Figure 3 shares many of the steps and features shown in Figure 2, and the same reference numerals are used to denote these shared features. specifically, Figure 3a to Figure 3c and Figure 2a to Figure 2c basically the same. Figure 3d Additional run-through steps provided by the present invention are shown. The penetration step is an initial plasma etch step that penetrates the surface and starts etching by forming initial etch features 7 . Subsequently, a main plasma etch process is performed to etch deeper in the SiC workpiece.

[0031] Using Ar and O 2 The conventional prior art through-step removes only tens of nanometers of SiC within 15 minutes. For highly polished surfaces, this is sufficient to achieve a satisfactory defect-free etch. However, in other instances, such as for ground surfaces, it results in more than 50% etched features, such as vias with defects. It has been fo...

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Abstract

According to the invention there is provided a method of plasma etching a silicon carbide workpiece including the steps of: forming a mask on a surface of the silicon carbide workpiece; performing an initial plasma etch on the masked surface using a first set of process conditions, wherein the plasma is produced using an etchant gas mixture which includes i) oxygen and ii) at least one fluorine rich gas which is present in the etchant gas mixture at a volume ratio of less than 50%; and subsequently performing a bulk plasma etch process using a second set of process conditions which differ from the first set of process conditions.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a method for plasma etching silicon carbide and a related device. Background technique [0002] Silicon carbide is recognized as an extremely difficult material to etch. Etched features that are substantially free of defects are difficult to obtain in silicon carbide. Without being bound by any particular theory or hypothesis, it is believed that this is due to surface defects formed on the substrate during prior process steps. [0003] Figure 1a and Figure 1b is shown using the SF 6 / O 2 , SF 6 / O 2 / He, SF 6 / O 2 / Ar or SF 6 / O 2 Optical micrographs of conventional defects caused by plasma etching of SiC with Ar / He process gases. The SiC layer is typically lapped down to a thickness of about 100 microns and bonded to a carrier wafer prior to patterning and plasma etching. Obvious defect formation was observed. [0004] Nickel is often used as a hard mask for etching features such as vias into silicon carbide. ...

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): H01L21/3065
CPCH01L21/3065H01L21/3081C23F4/00C23F1/12H01J37/32449
Inventor 海尤玛·阿什拉夫安东尼·巴克
Owner SPTS TECH LTD