The Etching Mechanism Of The Deep Sub-micron Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Technology Research And Application

Plasma dry etching is one of the key technologies in manufacturing of very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI). As the semiconductor manufacturing industry moves towards smaller device structures and larger wafer sizes, the demands for accuracy and reproducibility in etching process has greatly increased. Below sub-micro feature size, understanding of plasma etching mechanism becomes necessary.First, we describled the development and status of etch process. Etch process developed from wet etch to dry etch; and etch system also developed from PE/RIE to MERIE and ICP. In this chapter we focus on ICP sysem for its configuration and characteristic. The development of etch process and etch system meet the requirement that shrink of the line length.Second, we studied the optiomiztion for shallow trench isolation process, which is a key process in modern sub-micro electronic manufacturing. Three factors were optimized. The first one is top corner rounding; the second is STI slope, and the last one is bottom corner rounding. The device performance is enhanced after optimization.At last, we studied the self-aligned contact process using C5F8/O2/Ar/C2H2F2 mixed gas. The oxide selectivity to Si3N4 can be improved by tuning the ratio of C5F8/O2 and C2H2F2 flow rate. The mechanism is also interpreted.