Real-time etching process monitoring and end-point detection with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer

This study shows the capabilities of a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to monitor etching processes in real time. The experiments described in this work involve SiO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> etching using CHF <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> and SF <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</inf> gases, and the results demonstrate the capability of the instrument to detect etching endpoints and track relevant species during the process.