Isotropic atomic level etching of tungsten using formation and desorption of tungsten fluoride

Kazunori Shinoda; Nobuya Miyoshi; Hiroyuki Kobayashi; Yuko Hanaoka; Kohei Kawamura; Masaru Izawa; Kenji Ishikawa; Masaru Hori

doi:10.1117/12.2297241

20 March 2018 Isotropic atomic level etching of tungsten using formation and desorption of tungsten fluoride

Kazunori Shinoda, Nobuya Miyoshi, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Yuko Hanaoka, Kohei Kawamura, Masaru Izawa, Kenji Ishikawa, Masaru Hori

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10589, Advanced Etch Technology for Nanopatterning VII; 105890I (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2297241
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2018, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

A selective, rapid thermal-cyclic atomic-level etching (ALE) of tungsten is developed. The first step of this process is exposing the surface of tungsten with hydrofluorocarbon plasma at −22°C to form a tungsten fluoride-based surface modified layer on the tungsten surface. The second step is rapid thermal annealing with infrared (IR) irradiation to remove the surface modified layer. Tungsten 4f peaks and a fluorine 1s peak, which were assigned to tungsten fluoride, were observed by in-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy immediately after plasma exposure. The peaks that originated from tungsten fluoride disappeared after the samples were annealed. Cyclic etching tests were carried out by repeating plasma exposure and IR irradiation with a 300-mm ALE tool. Films of tungsten, TiN, and SiO₂ were used as sample materials. The amount of etched tungsten increased as the number of cycle repetitions increased. The etched amount per cycle for tungsten was 0.8 nm. In comparison, etching of TiN and SiO₂ was not detected. Conformal etching profiles of patterned samples after 60 cycles were obtained. Furthermore, the etched amount per cycle showed saturation behavior with regard to plasma exposure time. Selective, rapid thermal cyclic ALE of tungsten was thus successfully demonstrated.

Citation Download Citation

Kazunori Shinoda, Nobuya Miyoshi, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Yuko Hanaoka, Kohei Kawamura, Masaru Izawa, Kenji Ishikawa, and Masaru Hori "Isotropic atomic level etching of tungsten using formation and desorption of tungsten fluoride", Proc. SPIE 10589, Advanced Etch Technology for Nanopatterning VII, 105890I (20 March 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2297241

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available