Single and multilayered materials processing by argon ion beam etching: study of ion angle incidence and defect formation

Abstract

Ion beam etching (IBE) is a very promising technique in microelectronics because of its capability to etch small patterns with a high resolution and inert materials. In this study, the angular incidence of an argon ion beam on the etch rate and uniformity is discussed in the case of several materials often used in microelectronics. The capability of the IBE technique to etch multilayered stack samples with positive anisotropic profiles was demonstrated on TiNiAu, TiNiCuAu, BST and PZT. Two typical defects involved in IBE processing (fences and not etched pattern foots) due to shadow masking and redeposition effect, are explained and solutions are presented to avoid them. Deep IBE was performed on GaN with an etch depth as high as 10 μm, using a 8 μm thick SiO2 mask. The etching of other mask materials, such as TiN, was investigated in order to improve the selectivity. Using a TiN mask, a selectivity to GaN as high as 5 is reported. Finally, the etch rate enhancement needed for deep etching was studied.