Comparative study reveals how gas mixtures affect silicon etching kinetics, indicating important implications for semiconductor processes.
A comparative study of both plasma parameters and reactive-ion etching kinetics of silicon in CF4 + Ar/He and CHF3 + Ar/He gas mixtures was carried out. It was shown that the substitution of argon by helium a) disturbs electro-physical plasma parameters; and b) causes decrease in both fluorine atom formation rate and density. The latter lowers silicon etching rate, but results in increasing effective probability for Si + xF → SiFx heterogeneous reaction at nearly constant surface temperature. This phenomenon is due to decreasing plasma polymerizing ability.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Alexander Efremov (2025) studied this question.