Inductively coupled plasma etching of bulk, single-crystal Ga2O3

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High ion density dry etching of bulk single-crystal β-Ga2O3 was carried out as a function of source power (100–800 W), chuck power (15–400 W), and frequency (13.56 or 40 MHz) in inductively coupled plasma (ICP) systems using Cl2/Ar or BCl3/Ar discharges. The highest etch rate achieved was ∼1300 Å min−1 using 800 W ICP source power and 200 W chuck power (13.56 MHz) with either Cl2/Ar or BCl3/Ar. This is still a comfortably practical set of conditions, where resist reticulation does not occur because of the effective He backside cooling of the sample in the tool and the avoidance of overly high powers in systems capable of 2000 W of source power. The etching is ion-assisted and produces anisotropic pattern transfer. The etched surface may become oxygen-deficient under strong ion-bombardment conditions. Schottky diodes fabricated on these surfaces show increased ideality factors (increasing from 1.00 to 1.29 for high power conditions) and reduced barrier heights (1.1 on reference diodes to 0.86 eV for etched surfaces). This electrically active damage is dependent on ion energy and flux during the etching. An obvious strategy is to reduce plasma powers toward the end of an etch sequence to reduce the disruption to the Ga2O3 surface.