Fluorine ICP Etcher (PlasmaTherm/SLR Fluorine ICP)

Fluorine ICP Etcher (PlasmaTherm/SLR Fluorine ICP) Tool Type Dry Etch Location Bay 2 Supervisor Brian Lingg Supervisor Phone (805) 893-8145 Supervisor E-Mail lingg_b@ucsb.edu Description SiRIE Based Flourine Etcher for Bosch MEMS Processes Manufacturer Plasmatherm (Unaxis) Dry Etch Recipes Sign up for this tool

About

The system is a Plasma-Therm 770 SLR series system with a loadlock. The system has an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) coil and a capactively coupled substrate RF supply to independently control plasma density and ion energy in the system. Helium back-side cooling is available to keep the sample cool during the etch. The system is fully computer controlled in all aspects of the pumping cycles and process control, and can be programmed by the user.

The system is generally meant for any fluorine-containing etch, which is typically for etching materials like SiO₂, Si₃N₄, Silicon, or other materials with voltalee fluoride etch products.

The fixturing is configured for 4" diameter Si wafers and uses a cermaic clamp on the outer ~5mm of the 100mm wafer to hold the sample on the RF chuck.

Smaller samples can be mounted onto 100mm carrier wafers, either with no adhesive (sample temperature will be higher), or with Santovac oil for better thermal cooling. However, great care must be taken to ensure no oil, photoresist or small pieces are placed on the outer 5mm of the carrier wafer, as the ceramic clamp will physically press on this out region, potentially causing stiction or breakage if foreign or sticky substances are in those regions.

The in-situ laser monitor installed on the chamber allows for repeatable etches and endpoint detection via continuous optical monitoring of the wafer reflectivity in a user-determined location, through a porthole on the chamber.

Detailed Specifications

• 1000 W ICP coil power at 2 MHz and 500 W substrate bias at 13.56 MHz plasma generators
• C₄F₈, SF₆, O₂, Ar, N_2, CHF_3, CF₄ gases available
• He-back-side cooling
• 100mm/4-inch wafer handling with physical topside clamp, contacting outer 5mm of wafer.
  • Small samples may be mounted with oil or no adhesive, but must be far away from this 5mm edge exclusion zone.
  • No photoresist or oil is allowed to contact the clamp, or wafers will get stuck and possibly break in the chamber.
• Windows-based computer control of process and wafer handling
• Laser endpoint monitoring with camera and simulation software, for repeatable etching - see: Intellemetrics LEP 500

Documentation

• Fluorine Etcher Operating Instructions (Cortex Software)

• How to restart software on Plasma-Therm Cortex Software
• Laser Monitor procedures

Recipes

• Recipes > Dry Etching > PlasmaTherm/SLR Fluorine Etcher
  • Starting point recipes for the FL-ICP, including SiO₂ and Si etches.
  • Historical Data records "calibration" etches to test tool performance.
• You can see a full list of all tools and all materials able to be etched by each on our Dry Etching Recipes Table.