Inductively coupled plasma etching of III–V semiconductors in BCl 3-based chemistries : II. InP, InGaAs, InGaAsP, InAs and AlInAs

Abstract

A parametric study of etch rates and surface morphologies of In-containing compound semiconductors (InP, InGaAs, InGaAsP, InAs and AlInAs) obtained by BCl 3-based Inductively Coupled Plasmas (ICP) is reported. Etch rates in the range 1500–3000 Å/min are obtained for all the materials at moderate source powers (500 W), with the rates being a strong function of discharge composition, rf chuck power and pressure. Typical root-mean-square surface roughness of ∼5 nm were obtained for InP, which is worse than the values obtained for Ga-based materials under the same conditions (∼1 nm). The near surface of etched samples is typically slightly deficient in the group V element, but the depth of this deficiency is small (a few tens of angstroms).