High energy electron fluxes in dc-augmented capacitively coupled plasmas. II. Effects on twisting in high aspect ratio etching of dielectrics

In high aspect ratio (HAR) plasma etching of holes and trenches in dielectrics, sporadic twisting is often observed. Twisting is the randomly occurring divergence of a hole or trench from the vertical. Many causes have been proposed for twisting, one of which is stochastic charging. As feature sizes shrink, the fluxes of plasma particles, and ions in particular, into the feature become statistical. Randomly deposited charge by ions on the inside of a feature may be sufficient to produce lateral electric fields which divert incoming ions and initiate nonvertical etching or twisting. This is particularly problematic when etching with fluorocarbon gas mixtures where deposition of polymer in the feature may trap charge. dc-augmented capacitively coupled plasmas (dc-CCPs) have been investigated as a remedy for twisting. In these devices, high energy electron (HEE) beams having narrow angular spreads can be generated. HEEs incident onto the wafer which penetrate into HAR features can neutralize the positive cha...

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