3D feature profile simulation for nanoscale semiconductor plasma processing

Nanoscale semiconductor plasma processing has become one of the most challenging issues due to the limits of physicochemical fabrication routes with its inherent complexity. The mission of future and emerging plasma processing for development of next generation semiconductor processing is to achieve the ideal nanostructures without abnormal profiles and damages, such as 3D NAND cell array with ultra-high aspect ratio, cylinder capacitors, shallow trench isolation, and 3D logic devices. In spite of significant contributions of research frontiers, these processes are still unveiled due to their inherent complexity of physicochemical behaviors, and gaps in academic research prevent their predictable simulation. To overcome these issues, a Korean plasma consortium began in 2009 with the principal aim to develop a realistic and ultrafast 3D topography simulator of semiconductor plasma processing coupled with zero-D bulk plasma models. In this work, aspects of this computational tool are introduced. The simulator was composed of a multiple 3D level-set based moving algorithm, zero-D bulk plasma module including pulsed plasma processing, a 3D ballistic transport module, and a surface reaction module. The main rate coefficients in bulk and surface reaction models were extracted by molecular simulations or fitting experimental data from several diagnostic tools in an inductively coupled fluorocarbon plasma system. Furthermore, it is well known that realistic ballistic transport is a simulation bottleneck due to the brute-force computation required. In this work, effective parallel computing using graphics processing units was applied to improve the computational performance drastically, so that computer-aided design of these processes is possible due to drastically reduced computational time. Finally, it is demonstrated that 3D feature profile simulations coupled with bulk plasma models can lead to better understanding of abnormal behaviors, such as necking, bowing, etch stops and twisting during high aspect ratio contact hole etch.