III.

Wet and Dry Etching

Wet Method Environment and Equipment Advantage Chemical Solutions Atmosphere, Bath 1) Low cost, easy to implement 2) High etching rate 3) Good selectivity for most materials 1) Inadequate for defining feature size < 1um 2) Potential of chemical handling hazards 3) Wafer contamination issues Isotropic (Except for etching Crystalline Materials) 1) Dry Ion Bombardment or Chemical Reactive Vacuum Chamber Capable of defining small feature size (< 100 nm) High cost, hard to implement low throughput Poor selectivity Potential radiation damage Anisotropic

1) 2) 3) 4)

Disadvantage

Directionality

Applied Physics 298r

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Pattern Generation (Transfer): Etch vs. Liftoff

Etching
Mask Film

Liftoff
Lithography

Mask Film

Mask

Lithography

Substrate

Substrate

Film Mask Film

Film Film Mask

Etching

Deposit Film

Mask

Substrate

Substrate

Film

Film

Strip Mask (Resist)

Substrate

Remove Mask (Resist) (Liftoff)

Substrate

Applied Physics 298r

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Isotropic vs. Anisotropic Etching

Isotropic Etching: Anisotropic Etching: Lateral Etch Ratio: Etching rate is the same in both horizontal and vertical direction Etching rate is different in horizontal and vertical direction
Mask

RL = 1
Mask

RL =

Horizontal Etch Rate (rH ) Vertical Etch Rate (rV )

RL = 1 0 < RL < 1 RL = 0

Isotropic Etching: Anisotropic Etching: Directional Etching:

0 < RL < 1
Mask

Bias: the difference in lateral dimensions between the feature on mask and the actually etched pattern smaller RL results in smaller bias
Applied Physics 298r 3

RL = 0

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Under Cut and Over Etch

Bias
Mask Mask

Bias

Film

Film

Substrate (Rl = 1, pattern dimension is poorly defined)

Under Cut Good for Lift-off

Substrate (Rl = 0.5, pattern dimension is better defined)

Mask

Mask

Substrate Over-Etch results in more vertical profile but larger bias

Substrate Worse in thick film

Poor CD control in

thick film using wet etch

4 E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Applied Physics 298r

Mask Erosion: Film-Mask Etching Selectivity

1) film horizontal etch rate (rfh) < mask horizontal etch rate (rmh):
Mask Film

W (% ) = 2 (cot + Rm ) hf S fm

Substrate

RmL =

rmH rmV
rfV rmV

(mask lateral etch ratio)

W/2 (Bias)
Mask

hf

Film

S fm =
2)

(ratio of film and mask vertical etching rate selectivity)

Substrate

If film horizontal etch rate (rfh) > mask horizontal etch rate (rmh):

W/2 (Bias)
Mask
Film

W (% ) = 2 Rm hf
Applied Physics 298r 5

Substrate

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Film-Mask Selectivity (Sfm) vs. Etching Bias

Selectivity vs Mask Lateral Etch Ratio Rm
100 80 = 90
Rm = 50% Rm = 10%

Selectivity vs Mask Wall angle

100

Selectivity

Selectivity

Rm = 100%

80 60 40 20 0
= 90 = 60 = 30

60 40 20 0 0 2 4 6

Rm = 100% 0 2 4 6 8 10

10

W/h (% )

W/h (% )

Most mask material etches isotropically Selectivity > 20:1

Applied Physics 298r 6 E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Wet Etch Crystalline Materials

Typically, wet etching is isotropic However on crystalline materials, etching rate is typically lower on the more densely packed surface than on that of loosely packed surface Si: Diamond Lattice Structure Surface Atom Density: {111} > {100} > {110} Etching rate: R(100) ~ 100 x R(111)
{110} {111} {100}

(100)

(100) Si Wafer

Applied Physics 298r

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Si Wet Etch (100) Wafer, Mask Aligned in <110> Direction

(100) (100)

{110} {110} Mask {111} {100}

54.7 (111)

(100)

54.7 (111)

(100)

(200-nm size pyramidal pit on (100) Si substrate)

Applied Physics 298r

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Si Wet Etch (100) Wafer, Mask Aligned in <100> Direction

(100)

(100) {110} Mask {110} {111}

Etching on (110) Si
{100}

<100> <100>

<110>

<111>

(Undercut!)

Applied Physics 298r

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

GaAs Wet Etch (100) Wafer

(100) {111}Ga {111}As {111}As

<100>
{110}

<100>

{111}Ga {100}

(100)

Zincblende
) 00 (1

Structure Etching Rate:

<100> <100>

R({111}As) > R({100}) > R({111}Ga)

10

M k as

Mask

Applied Physics 298r

E. Chen (4-12-2004)

Typical Wet Etchants

Material Gas 1) KOH 2) HNO3 + H2O + HF 1) HF 2) BHF 1) HF 2) BHF 3) H3PO4 1) H2SO4 + H2O2 +H2O 2) Br + CH3OH 1) HCl + HNO3 2) KI + I2 +H2O 1) HCl + H2O 2) NaOH Etching Rate ~ 6 600 nm/min (anisotropic) ~ 100 nm/min ~ 10 1000 nm/min ~ 100 nm/min ~ 100 nm/min ~ 10 nm/min ~ 10 um/min ~ 40 nm/min ~ 1 um/min ~ 500 nm/min Mask Selectivity

Si (a-Si)

Resist

> 50:1

SiO2

Resist Resist SiO2

> 50:1

SI3N4

> 50:1

GaAs

Resist

> 50:1

Au Al

Resist Resist

> 50:1 > 50:1

Applied Physics 298r

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Dry Etching
+

Problems with wet etching: Isotropic unable to achieve pattern size smaller than film thickness Main Purpose of Developing Dry Etching is to Achieve Anisotropic Etching Type of Dry Etching Technology Physical Sputtering - Physical bombardment Ion Mill Plasma sputtering Plasma Etching - Plasma-assisted chemical reaction Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) - Chemical reaction + ion bombardment
Applied Physics 298r 12

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Dry Etching Comparison

Chamber Pressure Beam Energy Anisotropy Selectivity

Dry Etching Plasma Etching Plasma assisted chemical reaction

High > 100 Mtorr

Low

Low

Very Good

Low 10 ~ 100 mtorr

Medium

Reactive Ion Etching Physical bombardment + chemical reaction

Medium

Good

Very Low < 10 mtorr

High

Physical Sputtering (Ion Mill) physical bombardment

High

Poor

Applied Physics 298r

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Reactive Ion Etching (RIE)

Etching gas is introduced into the chamber continuously Plasma is created by RF power Reactive species (radicals and ions) are generated in the plasma radicals: chemical reaction ions: bombardment Reactive species diffused onto the sample surface The species are absorbed by the surface Chemical reaction occurs, forming volatile byproduct Byproduct is desorbed from the surface Byproduct is exhausted from the chamber Gas Selection: 1) 2) React with the material to be etched Result in volatile byproduct with low vapor pressure
Gases

eAr

eAr+ t

Shaw Heads

Substrate

RF

Applied Physics 298r

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Typical RIE Gases

Material Gas 1) CF4 2) SF6 3) BCl2 + Cl2 1) CHF3 + O2 2) CF4 + H2 1) CF4 + O2 (H2) 2) CHF3 1) Cl2 2) Cl2 + BCl3 1) CH4/H2 1) Cl2 2) BCl3 + Cl2 1) O2 Etching Rate (A/min) ~ 500 Mask Resist Metal (Cr, Ni, Al) Resist Metal (Cr, Ni, Al) Resist Metal (Cr, Ni, Al) SI3N4 Metal (Cr, Ni) SI3N4 Metal (Cr, Ni, Al) Resist SI3N4 SI3N4 Metal (Cr, Ni) Selectivity ~ 20:1 ~ 40:1 ~ 10:1 ~ 30:1 ~ 10:1 ~ 20:1 ~ 10:1 ~ 20:1 ~ 40:1 ~ 10:1 ~ 50:1

Si (a-Si)

SiO2 SI3N4

~ 200 ~ 100

GaAs

~ 200

InP Al Resist / Polymer

~ 200 ~ 300 ~ 500

Applied Physics 298r

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Arts of Nanofabrication: Nano-Dots, -Holes and -Rings

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Arts of Nanofabrication : Nano-Gratings

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Arts of Nanofabrication : Nano-Fluidic Channels

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