Taylor G. Smith, Ali M. Ali, Jean-François de Marneffe, Jane P. Chang
{"title":"等离子氮化技术用于镍的原子层蚀刻","authors":"Taylor G. Smith, Ali M. Ali, Jean-François de Marneffe, Jane P. Chang","doi":"10.1116/6.0003263","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Nickel (Ni) and its alloys are important multifunctional materials for the fabrication of integrated circuits, as either the absorber for the extreme ultraviolet lithography masks and/or interconnect metals at the nanometer scale. However, these applications require that Ni to be patterned controllably, selectively, and anisotropically—requirements that can only be met with a plasma based atomic layer etch (ALE) process. In this work, a plasma-thermal ALE approach is developed to pattern Ni, utilizing a nitrogen plasma to form NixN at the surface, formic acid (FA) vapor to selectively remove the NixN layer, and a low-energy Ar+ sputter process to remove carbon residue left by the FA prior to the subsequent nitridation step. This three step ALE process was shown effective to etch Ni with a rate of 1.3 ± 0.17 nm/cycle while maintaining surface smoothness.","PeriodicalId":17490,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Plasma nitridation for atomic layer etching of Ni\",\"authors\":\"Taylor G. Smith, Ali M. Ali, Jean-François de Marneffe, Jane P. Chang\",\"doi\":\"10.1116/6.0003263\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Nickel (Ni) and its alloys are important multifunctional materials for the fabrication of integrated circuits, as either the absorber for the extreme ultraviolet lithography masks and/or interconnect metals at the nanometer scale. However, these applications require that Ni to be patterned controllably, selectively, and anisotropically—requirements that can only be met with a plasma based atomic layer etch (ALE) process. In this work, a plasma-thermal ALE approach is developed to pattern Ni, utilizing a nitrogen plasma to form NixN at the surface, formic acid (FA) vapor to selectively remove the NixN layer, and a low-energy Ar+ sputter process to remove carbon residue left by the FA prior to the subsequent nitridation step. This three step ALE process was shown effective to etch Ni with a rate of 1.3 ± 0.17 nm/cycle while maintaining surface smoothness.\",\"PeriodicalId\":17490,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2024-01-31\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"88\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0003263\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"材料科学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"MATERIALS SCIENCE, COATINGS & FILMS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0003263","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, COATINGS & FILMS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
摘要
镍(Ni)及其合金是制造集成电路的重要多功能材料,可用作极紫外线光刻掩模的吸收剂和/或纳米尺度的互连金属。然而,这些应用要求对镍进行可控、选择性和各向异性的图案化,而只有基于等离子体的原子层蚀刻(ALE)工艺才能满足这些要求。在这项工作中,开发了一种等离子体-热原子层蚀刻 (ALE) 方法,利用氮等离子体在表面形成 NixN,利用甲酸 (FA) 蒸汽选择性地去除 NixN 层,并利用低能 Ar+ 溅射工艺去除 FA 在随后的氮化步骤之前留下的碳残留物,从而对镍进行图案化。结果表明,这种三步 ALE 工艺能有效地蚀刻镍,蚀刻速率为 1.3 ± 0.17 nm/周期,同时保持表面光滑。
Nickel (Ni) and its alloys are important multifunctional materials for the fabrication of integrated circuits, as either the absorber for the extreme ultraviolet lithography masks and/or interconnect metals at the nanometer scale. However, these applications require that Ni to be patterned controllably, selectively, and anisotropically—requirements that can only be met with a plasma based atomic layer etch (ALE) process. In this work, a plasma-thermal ALE approach is developed to pattern Ni, utilizing a nitrogen plasma to form NixN at the surface, formic acid (FA) vapor to selectively remove the NixN layer, and a low-energy Ar+ sputter process to remove carbon residue left by the FA prior to the subsequent nitridation step. This three step ALE process was shown effective to etch Ni with a rate of 1.3 ± 0.17 nm/cycle while maintaining surface smoothness.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A publishes reports of original research, letters, and review articles that focus on fundamental scientific understanding of interfaces, surfaces, plasmas and thin films and on using this understanding to advance the state-of-the-art in various technological applications.