Investigation of Cr etch kinetics

Abstract

Studies on Cr etch and its kinetics were carried out using a 50KeV photomask e-beam writing system, an ICP plasma etcher, chemically amplified resist (CAR), and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) metrology tool. A Cr etch rate equation was developed, showing good agreement with experimental data. Both the theoretical rate equation and experimental results showed that the main Cr etch rate effect parameters were oxygen mass flow rate, oxygen partial pressure, and ICP power. It was found that pressure plays a very important role in critical dimension (CD) uniformity etch contribution, loading effects, isolated/dense (I/D) etch CD bias, and etch CD movement. Etch kinetic information was found to be very helpful for improving CD uniformity, reducing pattern (local loading) effects, and controlling CD movement at the etch step. Some obsolete-pattern photomasks were used in the kinetic study. The main advantages of using obsolete photomasks include reducing resist effects on Cr etch rate investigation, obtaining much more etch kinetics data, and significantly lowering process development costs normally incurred from lithography tool time and raw photomask material consumption.