Particle contamination in sulfur-hexafluoride/argon plasma etching process

Abstract

Process generated particle contamination on unpatterned silicon wafers etched in an SF6/argon plasma using a Tegal MCR-1 etcher in the plasma triode-1 mode was characterized using response surface methodology. Particle deposition was observed to be a predictable function of plasma parameter space, which can be determined by relatively few statistically designed experiments. A model of particle deposition as a function of 13.56 MHz chamber electrode rf power, chamber pressure, gas flow rate, etch time and 100 kHz wafer electrode power was constructed. It is found that particle deposition depends linearly on etch time and both 13.56 MHz and 100 kHz power. In addition, particle deposition increased with gas flow rate at low flow rate, reaches a maximum, then decreased as flow rate increased further. Moreover, there was no observable effect on particle deposition due to pressure variation in the pressure range explored. Auger chemical analysis showed that the particles contained elemental sulfur, fluorine, silicon, aluminum, carbon and oxygen. Most particles were typically less than 2 μm in diameter.