TiN Etch Research Articles

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Etching of Native TiO2 on TiN

Thin‐film polycrystalline TiN with an approximate 2 nm thick native overlayer is bombarded with 50 to 200 eV Ar ions in an electron cyclotron resonance plasma. In situ x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and static secondary ion mass spectrometry suggest complete removal of oxygen from the planar surface, independent of ion energy, with remaining on the columnar grain boundaries. The TiN etching rate increases from 6 to 14 nm/min as the ion energy is raised from 100 to 200 eV. The TiN stoichiometry does not change with ion bombardment.

Monolithic thin-film metal-oxide gas-sensor arrays with application to monitoring of organic vapors

Abstract This paper presents the study of eight-element gas-microsensor arrays that have been developed by silicon-based microfabrication and micromachining techniques combined with the reactive sputtering and etching of tin(IV) oxide or tin dioxide, zinc oxide, and tungsten trioxide. The mixed metal-oxide array has been fabricated on a 3 mm × 3 mm silicon chip. The process-compatibility problem encountered when delineating multiple sensing materials into a single device is resolved by combining ion-beam milling, ‘lift-off’, and wet chemical etching methods. The microsensor arrays are used to monitor benzene, toluene, and methanol and to analyze benzene-toluene mixtures with various multivariate calibration methods. The range of sensitivity of the arrays is tested with concentrations between 50 and 500 ppm of the organic vapors. Prediction errors for benzene-toluene mixtures are 29.8 ppm and 17.0 ppm, respectively, using projection pursuit regression.

The chemistry of etching and deposition processes

Abstract

Characterization of III-V materials by optical interferometry

Digital interference microscopy is a new measuring technique with submicron horizontal resolution and nanometric vertical resolution, that can be used for the three-dimensional analysis of surface defects and device features in many microelectronics applications on bulk materials and epitaxial layers. In this paper we show how certain defects can be analysed on III-V materials and devices using two different interferometric techniques. The choice of the technique depends on the height and the slope of the surface features to be measured. We show that small defects less than λ/2 in height, or surfaces with shallow continuous slopes upto one or two microns high are best profiled with the phase stepping technique (PSM) because of the high vertical resolution of 1 nm and the higher speed and precision. This is illustrated by studies of the surface polish of InP wafers, defects after chemical etching of tin doped InP, defects on an epitaxial layer of GaAs on InP and quantum dot structures on GaAs. For measuring devices which contain mesas and grooves with step heights greater than λ/2, the peak fringe scanning (PFSM) method is the better choice. The vertical resolution is slighthly less (4 nm), but the vertical range is higher (upto 15 μm) as demonstrated with the measurement of an etched groove in laster/detector device on a quaternary layer on InP, and MESFET device on GaAs. Compared with electron microscopy and the new near field scanning techniques, digital interference microscopy has the advantages of ease of use and speed of analysis and being able to resolve certain problems that are difficult or not possible by other means, such as profiling deep narrow etched grooves, or measuring the relief of a surface hidden under a transparent layer. The main disadvantages are that the horizontal resolution is limited to the resolving power of the objective and that errors due to variations in the optical properties of the sample need to be taken into account

Assessing Small Hole Plating Capabilities

SummaryA series of Hadamard designed experiments were used to evaluate the high aspect ratio plating capabilities and opportunities for extending that capability at the Tektronix Forest Grove Circuit Board Manufacturing Division. The investigation employed IPC-A-39 artwork to explore the effects of various factors in the electroless copper, electrolytic copper, and tin plating processes on electrical opens in small holes. Failed through holes were also examined using standard metallurgical techniques. The results showed: 1) The tin etch resist was the primary source of failures within the Tektronix plating process.2) Higher current density in the bright acid tin process and replacing bright acid tin with matte tin significantly reduced the number of failures.3) None of the factors tested for the electroless copper process had any impact on the number of failures.

Single crystal growth of titanium nitride by chemical vapour deposition and measurement of the linear growth rate on a (100) plane

Single crystals of TiN were grown from a gas mixture of TiCl 4, N 2 and H 2 on a tip of molybdenum wire twisted with a tungsten filament heated above 1800°C. Cubic single crystals grew at 1600–2200°C, and etching of TiN took place above 2200°C. Linear growth rates of <100>edges were calculated from sequential micrographs, and attained to a maximum of 110 μm/min at 1900–2000°C and at a gas flow ratio of 2 N 2⧸ TiCl 4 of 0.7–1.0. The crystal growth mechanism at an early stage is suggested to be surface reaction controlled.