Double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device

Abstract

A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device belongs to the field of ion beam etching technology. Specifically, this device comprises a quartz cylinder outer wall, and at least one quartz cylinder inner liner is provided inside the quartz cylinder outer wall, the axes of the two are aligned, and a quartz cylinder inner liner support is connected between the quartz cylinder inner liner and the quartz cylinder outer wall. The bottoms of the quartz cylinder outer wall and the quartz cylinder inner liner are connected to a grid mesh, and most etching byproducts are sputtered onto the inner surface of the quartz cylinder inner liner through the pores of the grid mesh, while less etching byproducts adhere to the inner wall of the quartz cylinder outer wall, so the entire radio frequency circuit is less affected by contamination. In other words, the etching rate is less affected by contamination, extending the lifespan of the quartz cylinder device, reducing etching costs, and increasing the MTBC time of ion beam etching.

Description

Technology Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of ion beam etching, and in particular to a double-walled multi-structured quartz cylinder device. Background Technology

[0002] With the advancement of semiconductor devices, the precision of wafer graphics is steadily increasing. As conventional wet etching can no longer meet the requirements for high-precision fine-line graphic etching due to inevitable lateral drilling, a series of dry etching technologies have been gradually developed. Plasma etching, reactive ion etching, bipolar sputtering etching, and ion beam etching are widely used. Both plasma etching and reactive ion etching cannot be separated from reactive gases. Etching different materials requires different reactive gases and components, as well as different excitation modes and conditions. Reactive gases are typically chlorides or fluorides, and it is difficult to find reactive gases suitable for materials such as Pt, which are often etched by the purely physical effects of bipolar sputtering or ion beam etching.

[0003] In ion beam etching, ions are supplied by an ion source having low ion energy, high density, minimal damage to the substrate, and a fast etching rate. Since ion beam etching is not selective for materials, it is particularly suitable for some materials that are difficult to thin by chemical grinding and dielectric grinding. Furthermore, because ion beam etching is anisotropic etching, it offers high accuracy in graphic transmission and minimal linewidth loss for fine lines; additionally, since only argon is used and no reactive gases are required, it offers high process safety, low environmental pollution, and low operating costs, making it particularly suitable for materials that are difficult to etch by chemical methods and for precise ultrathin film etching.

[0004] An ion beam etching machine is a type of high-vacuum etching equipment that adopts a physical etching method and generates an ion beam using a special ion source, enabling anisotropic etching on any material through the accelerated ion beam. When a material substrate is used for etching, a mask material layer exists on the surface of the substrate, with a photolithographic pattern placed on top of it; once the mask material to be removed is removed from the substrate, the ion beam strikes the areas not blocked by the mask material. Ion beam etching machines are primarily used for the dry etching of metal films such as Au, platinum-Pt, NiCr alloys, and copper-Cu.

[0005] The ion source used in ion beam etching generally consists of a coil, a quartz cylinder, an ion source shell, and a grid mesh, and the grid mesh is composed of a screen grid, an acceleration grid, and a deceleration grid. Ion beam etching is typically performed by extracting an ion beam from the grid mesh to etch a wafer on a carrier film table. Since ion beam etching is primarily used to etch metal thin films, etched by-products are sputtered through the voids of the grid mesh onto the inner surface of the quartz cylinder during this process, forming a contaminated layer on the inner surface of the quartz cylinder. Because most of the components of the contaminated layer are metal, the contaminated layer exhibits conductive properties. As the etching process progresses, the contaminated layer gradually becomes thicker, so the electric field generated by the coil in the quartz cylinder gradually weakens and the plasma density of the quartz cylinder gradually decreases until the high-power radio frequency applied by the coil can no longer successfully ignite the quartz cylinder, and consequently, the etching rate of the wafer etching process gradually decreases, which significantly shortens the lifespan of the quartz cylinder, increases etching costs, and reduces the MTBC time of the ion beam etching.

[0006] To solve the above technical problem, the present disclosure provides a dual-wall multi-structure quartz cylinder device.

[0007] The technical solution adopted in this disclosure to solve the above technical problem is as follows.

[0008] A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device including an outer wall of a quartz cylinder is provided, and at least one inner liner of a quartz cylinder is provided inside the outer wall of the quartz cylinder, the axes of the two are coincided, and a support for the inner liner of the quartz cylinder is connected between the inner liner of the quartz cylinder and the outer wall of the quartz cylinder.

[0009] In addition, the outer wall of the quartz cylinder is a tubular structure including the cylinder wall and the top cover.

[0010] In addition, a gas inlet nozzle is provided at the central position of the top cover.

[0011] In addition, the gas inlet nozzle is connected to a gas homogenizing plate.

[0012] In addition, a specific distance is placed between the inner liners of two adjacent quartz cylinders.

[0013] Additionally, the inner liner of the quartz cylinder is a bent piece having a bent angle that matches the outer wall of the quartz cylinder, and the bent portion of the bent piece is parallel to the cylinder wall and the top cover of the outer wall of the quartz cylinder, respectively.

[0014] In addition, the height of the curved piece is smaller than the height of the outer wall of the quartz cylinder.

[0015] In addition, the outer wall of the quartz cylinder and the bottom of the inner liner of the quartz cylinder are connected to a grid mesh.

[0016] In addition, the quartz cylinder inner liner support is connected to the quartz cylinder inner liner and the quartz cylinder outer wall by welding.

[0017] The beneficial effects of the present disclosure compared to prior art are as follows.

[0018] The quartz cylinder device has a double-walled multi-structure, and most etching byproducts are sputtered onto the inner surface of the inner liner of the quartz cylinder through the pores of the grid mesh, while less etching byproducts adhere to the inner wall of the outer wall of the quartz cylinder, so the entire radio frequency circuit is less affected by contamination. In other words, the etching rate is less affected by contamination, extending the lifespan of the quartz cylinder device, reducing etching costs, and increasing the MTBC time of ion beam etching.

[0019] The present disclosure is described in detail by combining the attached drawings and specific embodiments. Brief explanation of the drawing

[0020] Figure 1 shows a structural schematic diagram of an etching system. Figure 2 shows a basic schematic diagram of an etching system. Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a single-wall quartz cylinder of the prior art. Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between the etching rate of a single-wall quartz cylinder and the usage period of a single-wall quartz cylinder. FIG. 5 shows a side cross-sectional view of a quartz cylinder device of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 shows a front plan view of a quartz cylinder device of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 illustrates an axial plan view of a quartz cylinder device of the present disclosure. FIG. 8 illustrates the relationship between the etching rate of a quartz cylinder device and the usage period of a quartz cylinder in the present disclosure. Specific details for implementing the invention

[0021] To aid in understanding the present disclosure, the present disclosure is described more comprehensively with reference to the relevant drawings. Although various embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated in the drawings, the present disclosure may be embodied in various different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein; rather, these embodiments are provided to make the content disclosed in the present disclosure more thorough and comprehensive.

[0022] This device is applied in the field of ion beam etching technology, and the etching system is illustrated in FIG. 1. A lower electrode (2) is located in the middle part of the cavity (1), and a rotating platform (3) is located in the middle part of the lower electrode (2), and the lower electrode (2) can rotate about a central axis (O). An ion source (10) is connected to the cavity (1) and can form a certain angle with the rotating platform (3), and a neutralizer (5) forms a certain angle with the ion source (10). The ion source (10) is composed of a quartz cylinder (11), a radio frequency coil (12), and a grid mesh (13), and the grid mesh (13) is generally composed of a screen grid, an acceleration grid, and a ground grid.

[0023] In the field of conventional ion beam etching technology, the quartz cylinder device is generally a single-wall structure, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and it can be seen that in this process, etching byproducts are sputtered through the pores of the grid mesh (13) onto the inner surface of the single-wall quartz cylinder (12), thereby forming a contaminated layer (23) on the inner surface of the single-wall quartz cylinder (12). Since most of the components of the contaminated layer (23) are metal, the contaminated layer (23) has conductive properties. Currently, as the etching process progresses, the contaminated layer (23) gradually becomes thicker, so the electric field generated by the coil (11) in the single-wall quartz cylinder (12) gradually weakens until the high-power radio frequency applied by the coil (11) can no longer successfully ignite the single-wall quartz cylinder (12), and the density of the plasma (22) in the single-wall quartz cylinder gradually decreases, so that the etching rate of the wafer etching process gradually decreases, the lifespan of the single-wall quartz cylinder (12) is greatly shortened, the etching cost increases, and the MTBC time of the ion beam etching decreases.

[0024] Since ion beam etching is primarily used for metal film etching, as shown in FIG. 3, it can be seen from the structural schematic of the single-wall quartz cylinder that in this process, etching byproducts are sputtered through the pores of the grid mesh (13) to the inner surface of the single-wall quartz cylinder (12), thereby forming a contaminated layer (23) on the inner surface of the single-wall quartz cylinder (12). Since most of the components of the contaminated layer (23) are metal, the contaminated layer (23) has conductive properties. Currently, as the etching progresses, the contaminated layer (23) gradually becomes thicker, so the electric field generated by the coil (11) in the single-wall quartz cylinder (12) gradually weakens until the high-power radio frequency applied by the coil (11) can no longer successfully ignite the single-wall quartz cylinder (12), and the density of the plasma (22) in the single-wall quartz cylinder gradually decreases, so that the etching rate of the wafer etching process gradually decreases (as shown in FIG. 4, which is a relationship between the etching rate and the using duration of the quartz cylinder), the lifespan of the single-wall quartz cylinder (12) is greatly shortened, the etching cost increases, and the MTBC time of the ion beam etching decreases.

[0025] Preferably, a smooth single-wall quartz cylinder of the prior art is designed as a double-wall multi-structure quartz cylinder in the present disclosure, as illustrated in FIG. 5. The double-wall multi-structure quartz cylinder of the present disclosure consists of a quartz cylinder outer wall (100), a quartz cylinder inner liner (110), and a quartz cylinder inner liner support (120). The quartz cylinder outer wall (100) and the quartz cylinder inner liner (110) are welded together to form an integral quartz cylinder through the quartz cylinder inner liner support (120). As illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, one or more quartz cylinder inner liners (110) are distributed uniformly or non-uniformly on the quartz cylinder outer wall (100), and the shape of the quartz cylinder inner liner (110) may be concentric or non-concentric circular arcs with respect to the quartz cylinder outer wall (100), or they may be planar structures. An embodiment of the present disclosure takes as an example the shape of a quartz cylinder liner (110) that may be concentric with the outer wall (100) of a quartz cylinder. The distribution drop (R1) of the quartz cylinder inner liner (110) is determined by the width (L2) of the quartz cylinder inner liner support (120), L2 may be set according to process conditions and requirements, and the number of quartz cylinder inner liners (110) and the distance L1 between two quartz cylinder inner liners (110) may also be set according to process conditions and requirements.

[0026] In the above structure, the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder includes a cylinder wall (100a) and a top cover (100b), and a gas inlet nozzle (20) is provided at a central position of the top cover (100b), and the gas inlet nozzle (20) is connected to a gas homogenization plate (21). The inner liner (110) of the quartz cylinder is a curved piece having a curved angle that matches the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder, and the curved part of the curved piece is parallel to the cylinder wall (100a) and the top cover (100b) of the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder, respectively. It should be noted that the height of the curved piece is smaller than the height of the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder, and there is a specific distance between two adjacent inner liners (110) of the quartz cylinder, so the integral structure of the quartz cylinder device is simple and stable.

[0027] The basic principle of the etching system designed according to the present disclosure is as illustrated in FIG. 2, whereby a gas source Ar is introduced through a rear inlet nozzle (20) of an ion source (10), a rear diameter gas homogenization plate (21) is used to homogenize the gas, a high frequency is applied to a high frequency coil (12), and while voltage is applied to a grid mesh (13), Ar is stimulated by the high frequency coil (12) to generate plasma in a quartz cylinder (11). The generated positive charge plasma (14) is accelerated by the grid mesh (13) to impact the wafer, and during this process, a neutralizer (5) continuously emits electrons (15), and the positive charge plasma (14) and electrons (15) are neutralized into neutral ions (16), and finally, the neutral ions (16) impact the wafer on a rotating platform (3) to produce a pure physical etching effect. During this process, in order to ensure uniformity of the etching, the rotating platform (3) always rotates around the central axis of the wafer.

[0028] The principle for preventing contamination from affecting the quartz cylinder device in the present disclosure is as follows.

[0029] In the entire radio frequency circuit of the original single-wall quartz cylinder structure, the coil (11) is the power source, the plasma (22) is the load, and the inner wall of the quartz cylinder (12) is the radio frequency circuit, so the influence of the contaminated layer (23) has a significant effect on the radio frequency circuit, which is reflected as a significant effect on the etching rate. In the entire radio frequency circuit of the double-wall quartz cylinder of the present disclosure, the coil (11) is the power source, the plasma (22) is the load, and the inner wall of the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder is the radio frequency circuit. Since the quartz cylinder is designed with a quartz cylinder inner liner (110), most of the etching byproducts will be sputtered onto the inner surface of the quartz cylinder inner liner (110) through the pores of the grid mesh (13), and less etching byproducts will be attached to the inner wall of the high-frequency quartz cylinder outer wall (100), so the impact of contamination on the entire radio frequency circuit is extremely low, in other words, the etching rate is less affected by contamination, thereby extending the lifespan of the quartz cylinder device, reducing etching costs, and increasing the MTBC time of ion beam etching (as shown in FIG. 8, which is a diagram of the relationship between the etching rate of the quartz cylinder device and the lifespan of the quartz cylinder in this disclosure).

[0030] The exemplary description of the present disclosure is made together with the accompanying drawings. It will be apparent that specific implementations of the present disclosure are not limited by the methods described above. Insofar as non-substantial improvements are made by adopting the method concepts and technical measures of the present disclosure, or insofar as the concepts and technical measures of the present disclosure are directly applied in other cases without any improvement, they are within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

Claims

Claim 1 A double-wall multi-structure quartz cylinder device comprising, wherein the double-wall multi-structure quartz cylinder device comprises a quartz cylinder outer wall (100), and a plurality of quartz cylinder inner liners (110) separated from each other are provided within the quartz cylinder outer wall, wherein the axes of the quartz cylinder outer wall (100) and the quartz cylinder inner liners (110) coincide with each other, and the plurality of quartz cylinder inner liners (110) are individually welded to the quartz cylinder outer wall (100) through a quartz cylinder inner liner support (120), and wherein the quartz cylinder inner liners (110) are bent pieces having a bent angle that coincides with the quartz cylinder outer wall (100), and the bent portions of the bent pieces are parallel to the cylinder wall (100a) and top cover (100b) of the quartz cylinder outer wall (100), respectively. Claim 2 A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder is a tubular structure including a cylinder wall (100a) and a top cover (100b). Claim 3 A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device characterized in that, in paragraph 2, a gas inlet nozzle (20) is provided at the central position of the top cover (100b). Claim 4 In paragraph 3, the gas inlet nozzle (20) is connected to a gas homogenization plate (21), forming a double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device. Claim 5 A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device according to claim 1, characterized in that a specific distance is placed between two adjacent quartz cylinder inner liners (110). Claim 6 delete Claim 7 A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device according to claim 1, characterized in that the height of the bent piece is smaller than the height of the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder. Claim 8 A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device according to claim 1, characterized in that the lower ends of the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder and the inner liner (110) of the quartz cylinder are connected to a grid mesh (13). Claim 9 A double-walled multi-structure quartz cylinder device according to claim 1, wherein the inner liner support (120) of the quartz cylinder is connected to the inner liner (110) of the quartz cylinder and the outer wall (100) of the quartz cylinder by welding.

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