Comparison of line edge roughness and profile angles of chemical vapor deposited amorphous carbon etched in O 2/N 2/Ar and H 2/N 2/Ar inductively coupled plasmas

• Published in: Thin solid films Vol. 519; no. 20; pp. 6755 - 6758
• Main Authors: Park, Y.R., Kwon, B.S., Jung, C.Y., Heo, W., Lee, N.-E., Shon, J.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2011
• Subjects: CVD a-C; Etching; Inductively coupled plasma; Line edge roughness (LER); Profile angle; CVD a-C; Profile angle; Inductively coupled plasma; Etching; Line edge roughness (LER)
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2011.01.383

In this study, we compared the line edge roughnesses (LER) and profile angles of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) amorphous carbon ( a-C) patterns etched in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etcher produced by varying process parameters such as the N 2 gas flow ratio, Q (N 2), and dc self-bias voltage (V dc) in O 2/N 2/Ar and H 2/N 2/Ar plasmas. The tendencies of the LER and profile angle values of the etched CVD a-C pattern were similar in both plasmas. The LER was smaller in the O 2/N 2/Ar than in the H 2/N 2/Ar plasmas, and the profile angle was larger in the O 2/N 2/Ar than in the H 2/N 2/Ar plasmas under the same processes conditions. The use of O 2/N 2/Ar plasma was more advantageous than the H 2/N 2/Ar plasma for controlling LER and profile angle.