Effect of source frequency and pulsing on the SiO2 etching characteristics of dual-frequency capacitive coupled plasma

Abstract

A SiO2 layer masked with an amorphous carbon layer (ACL) has been etched in an Ar/C4F8 gas mixture with dual frequency capacitively coupled plasmas under variable frequency (13.56–60 MHz)/pulsed rf source power and 2 MHz continuous wave (CW) rf bias power, the effects of the frequency and pulsing of the source rf power on the SiO2 etch characteristics were investigated. By pulsing the rf power, an increased SiO2 etch selectivity was observed with decreasing SiO2 etch rate. However, when the rf power frequency was increased, not only a higher SiO2 etch rate but also higher SiO2 etch selectivity was observed for both CW and pulse modes. A higher CF2/F ratio and lower electron temperature were observed for both a higher source frequency mode and a pulsed plasma mode. Therefore, when the C 1s binding states of the etched SiO2 surfaces were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the increase of C–Fx bonding on the SiO2 surface was observed for a higher source frequency operation similar to a pulsed plasma condition indicating the increase of SiO2 etch selectivity over the ACL. The increase of the SiO2 etch rate with increasing etch selectivity for the higher source frequency operation appears to be related to the increase of the total plasma density with increasing CF2/F ratio in the plasma. The SiO2 etch profile was also improved not only by using the pulsed plasma but also by increasing the source frequency.