Plasma etching to As2S3 thin films for optical waveguide fabrication has been studied using a helicon plasma etcher. The etching effects using the processing gases or gas mixtures of O2, Ar, and CF4 were compared. It was found that the O2 plasma had no chemical etching effect to the As2S3, but it could oxidize the surface of the As2S3. The Ar plasma provided a strong ion sputtering effect to th...

The authors studied the effect of the temperature and chemical state of the chamber wall on process performance for atomic layer etching of SiO2 using a steady-state Ar plasma, periodic injection of a defined number of C4F8 molecules, and synchronized plasma-based Ar+ ion bombardment. To evaluate these effects, the authors measured the quartz coupling window temperature. The plasma gas phase ch...

The field of plasma etching is reviewed. Plasma etching, a revolutionary extension of the technique of physical sputtering, was introduced to integrated circuit manufacturing as early as the mid 1960s and more widely in the early 1970s, in an effort to reduce liquid waste disposal in manufacturing and achieve selectivities that were difficult to obtain with wet chemistry. Quickly, the ability t...

Abstract: In this paper, a DRIE process for fabricating MEMS silicon trenches with a depth of more than 250 m is described. The DRIE was produced in oxygen-added sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) plasma, with sample cooling to cryogenic temperature using a Plasmalab System 100 ICP 180 at different RF powers. A series of experiments were performed to determine the etch rate and selectivity of the some m...

The inductively coupled plasma etching characteristics of Co2MnSi thin films patterned using a TiN hard mask were investigated by the addition of CH3OH to Ar gas. As the CH3OH concentration increased, the etch rates of Co2MnSi magnetic thin films and TiN hard mask decreased, but the etch profile improved. The effects of rf power, dc-bias voltage and gas pressure on the etch rate and etch profil...

Maskless etching approaches such as microdischarges and atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) have been studied recently. Nonetheless, a simple, long lifetime, and efficient maskless etching method is still a challenge. In this work, a separated type maskless etching system based on atmospheric pressure He/O2 plasma jet and microfabricated Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) nozzle have ...

Damage free etching is required for the gate etching process in GaAs IC fabrication. While inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is thought to be the low damage etching technique, the degradation of DC characteristics was observed in our GaAs MESFETs. Threshold voltage shifts and Schottky barrier height is decreased. It was confirmed that the control of the antenna power (i.e. applied power to the u...

Optical diagnostics are used to probe the plasma or neutral gas above the substrate, particles in the gas or on the surface, the film surface and reactor walls, the film itself, and the substrate during thin film processing. The development and application of optical probes are highlighted, in particular for analyzing plasma/gas phase intermediates and products and film composition, and perform...

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