• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2015

Virtual metrology (VM) model based on plasma information (PI) parameter for C4F8 plasma-assisted oxide etching processes is developed to predict and monitor the process results such as an etching rate with improved performance. To apply fault detection and classification (FDC) or advanced process control (APC) models on to the real mass production lines efficiently, high performance VM model is certainly required and principal component regression (PCR) is preferred technique for VM modeling despite this method requires many number of data set to obtain statistically guaranteed accuracy. In this study, as an effective method to include the 'good information' representing parameter into the VM model, PI parameters are introduced and applied for the etch rate prediction. By the adoption of PI parameters of b-, q-factors and surface passivation parameters as PCs into the PCR based VM model, information about the reactions in the plasma volume, surface, and sheath regions can be efficiently included into the VM model; thus, the performance of VM is secured even for insufficient data set provided cases. For mass production data of 350 wafers, developed PI based VM (PI-VM) model was satisfied required prediction accuracy of industry in C4F8 plasma-assisted oxide etching process.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.13-17
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• 2000

The electrical properties of polyimide for interlayer dielectric applications are investigated with ECR (Electron Cyclotron Resonance) etching process. ECR etching with $Cl_2$-based plasma, generally used for aluminum etching, results in an increase in the dielectric constant of polyimide, while $SF_{6}$ plasma exhibits a high polyimide etch rate and a reducing effect of the dielectric constant. The leakage current of the polyimide is significantly suppressed after plasma exposure. Combination of Al etching with $Cl_2$plasma and polyimide etching with $SF_{6}$ plasma is expected as a good tool for realizing the multilevel metallization structures.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.144-147
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• 2011

In this work, we present a study regarding the etching characteristics on titanium nitride (TiN) thin films using an inductively coupled plasma system. The TiN thin film was etched using a $N_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma. The studied etching parameters were the gas mixing ratio, the radio frequency (RF) power, the direct current (DC)-bias voltages, and the process pressures. The baseline conditions were as follows: RF power = 500 W, DC-bias voltage = -150 V, substrate temperature = $40^{\circ}C$, and process pressure = 15 mTorr. The maximum etch rate and the selectivity of the TiN to the $SiO_2$ thin film were 62.38 nm/min and 5.7, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed no accumulation of etching byproducts from the etched surface of the TiN thin film. Based on the experimental results, the etched TiN thin film was obtained by the chemical etching found in the reactive ion etching mechanism.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.213-213
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• 2011

DC arc plasmatron is powerful plasma source to apply etching and texturing processing. Even though DC arc plasmatron has many advantages, it is difficult to apply an industry due to the small applied area. To increase an effective processing area, we suggest a DC-RF hybrid plasma system. The DC-RF hybrid plasma system was designed and made. This system consists of a DC arc plasmatron, RF parts, reaction chamber, power feeder, gas control system and vacuum system. To investigate a DC-RF hybrid plasma, we used a Langmuir probe, OES (Optical emission spectroscopy), infrared (IR) light camera. For RF matching, PSIM software was used to simulate a current of an impedance coil. The results of Langmuir probe measurements, we obtain a homogeneous plasma density and electron temperature those are about $1{\times}1010$ #/cm3 and 1~4 eV. The DC-RF hybrid plasma source is applied for plasma etching experimental, and we obtain an etching rate of 10 ${\mu}m$/min. through a 90 mm of reaction chamber diameter.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.601-605
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• 2006

The resistance-capacitance (RC) delay of signals through interconnection materials becomes a big hurdle for high speed operation of semiconductors which contain multi-layer interconnections in smaller scales with higher integration density. Low-k materials are applied to the inter-metal dielectric (IMD) materials in order to overcome the RC delay. Relaxation continuum (RCT) model that includes neutral-species transport model have developed to model the etching process in a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) device. We present the parametric study of the modeling results of a two-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (2f-CCP) with $N_2/H_2$ gas mixture that is known as promising one for organic low-k materials etching. For the etching of low-k materials by $N_2/H_2$ plasma, N and H atoms have a big influence on the materials. Moreover the distributions of excited neutral species influence the plasma density and profile. We include the neutral transport model as well as plasma one in the calculation. The plasma and neutrals are calculated self-consistently by iterating the simulation of both species till a spatio-temporal steady state profile could be obtained.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.409-412
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• 2002

Under atmospheric pressure, apparently homogeneous and stable plasma can be generated from insulator barrier rf plasma generators each of which has an rf powered cathode and a grounded anode covered with a dielectric insulating material. In order to characterize the generating plasma under atmospheric pressure, some basic characteristic have been evaluated by the Langmuire probe method as well as by optical emission spectroscopy. From the result of plasma characteristics, the generated plasma was verified to be nonequilibrium; T(electron)>T(excitation)>T(gas). High rate Si(100) etching (($1.5{\mu}m$/min) were achieved by using He plasma containing a small amount of $CF_4$.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.307-312
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• 2014

We present a full finite element analysis for plasma discharge in etching process of semiconductor circuit. The charge transport equations of hydrodynamic diffusion-drift model and the electric field equation were numerically solved in a fully coupled system by using a standard finite element procedure for transient analysis. The proposed method was applied to a real plasma reactor in order to characterize the plasma sheath that is closely related to the yield of the etching process. Throughout the plasma discharge analysis, the base electrode of reactor was tested and modified for improving the uniformity around the wafer edge. The experiment and numerical results were examined along with SEM data of etching quality. The feasibility and usefulness of the proposed method was shown by both numerical and experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.802-808
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• 1994

The purpose of this paper is to describe an application of plasma polymerized thin film as an electron beam resist. Plasma polymerized thin film was prepared using an interelectrode capacitively coupled gas-flow-type reactor, and chosen methylmethacrylate(MMA)and methylmethacrylate-tetrameth-yltin(MMA-TMT) as a monomer. This thin films were also delineated by the electron-beam apparatus with an acceleration voltage of 30kV and an expose dose ranging from 20 to 900$\mu$C/cmS02T. The delineated pattern in the resist was developed with the same reactor which is used for polymerization using an argon as etching gas. The growth rate and etching rate of the thin film is increased with increasing of discharge power. Thin films by plasma polymerization show polymerization rate of 30~45($\pm$3) A/min, and etching rate of 440($\pm$30) A/min during Ar plasma etching at discharge power of 100W. In apparently lower than that of conventional PMMA, but the plasma-etching rate of PP(MMA-TMT) was higher than that of PPMMA.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2021

Many plants and animals in nature have superhydrophobic surfaces. This superhydrophobic surface has various properties such as self-cleaning, moisture collection, and anti-icing. In this study, the superhydrophobic properties of PTFE surface were treated by plasma etching. There were four important factors that changed the surface properties. Micro-sized protrusions were formed by plasma etching. The most influential parameter was RF Power. The contact angle of the pristine PTFE surface was about 113.8°. The maximum contact angle of the surface after plasma treatment with optimized parameters was about 168.1°. In this case, the sliding angle was quite small about 1°. These properties made it possible to remove droplets easily from the surface. To verify the self-cleaning effect of the surface, graphite was used to contaminate the surface and remove it with water droplets. Graphite particles were easily removed from the optimized surface compared to the pristine surface. As a result, a surface having water repellency and self-cleaning effects could be produced with optimized plasma etching parameters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1994.06a
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• pp.75-75
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• 1994