Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-fmk2r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-17T11:18:15.081Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Multi-Scale Simulations of Silicon Etching by Halides: Effects of Surface Reaction Rates.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

Matthias Kratzer
Affiliation:
Infineon Technologies AG, Memory Products, 81541 München, Germany
Werner Steinhögl
Affiliation:
Infineon Technologies AG, Memory Products, 81541 München, Germany
Alfred Kersch
Affiliation:
Infineon Technologies AG, Memory Products, 81541 München, Germany
Tanja Sachse
Affiliation:
Infineon Technologies AG, Memory Products, 81541 München, Germany
Volker Höink
Affiliation:
Infineon Technologies AG, Memory Products, 81541 München, Germany
Get access

Abstract

We investigate the reactive ion etching of amorphous silicon by halides using a hierarchy of models on different time and length scales. The feature evolution is modeled using a two- dimensional cell based Monte-Carlo feature scale simulator. The fluxes, the energy distributions, and the angular distributions of the wafer-incident particles are provided by a hybrid plasma sheath simulator. The relevant surface reaction rates are calculated by a molecular dynamics simulator using a Stillinger-Weber representation of the interatomic potential. Our investigations show that the surface reaction rates are strongly determined by the particular surface morpho- logy, which, in turn, is strongly influenced by the kinetic properties of the impinging particles. Thus, we link the molecular dynamics simulator into the model as a whole.

As results, we present calculations for the etching of amorphous silicon by fluorine, chlorine, and bromine. A Stillinger-Weber representation of the bromine and the silicon-bromine potential which was not yet available in literature is additionally developed. We discuss the different morphologies of halogenated silicon surfaces as a consequence of the energy distri- bution and the angular distribution of the impinging particles. Comparisons of the sputter yield functions of bare amorphous silicon surfaces and corresponding halogenated surfaces exhibit considerable differences, qualitative as well as quantitative.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Williams, P. F., Plasma Processing of Semiconductors (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1997).Google Scholar
2. Coburn, J.W., IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 19(6), 1048 (1991).Google Scholar
3. Konuma, M., Film Deposition by Plasma Techniques (Springer, New York, 1992).Google Scholar
4. Singh, V.K., Shaqfeh, E.S.G., and McVittie, J.P., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 12, 2952 (1994)Google Scholar
5. Hamaguchi, S. and Dalvie, M., J. Electrochem. Soc. 141, 1964 (1994)Google Scholar
6. Barone, M.E. and Graves, D.B., J. Appl. Phys. 77(3), 1263 (1994)Google Scholar
7. Helmer, B.A. and Graves, D.B., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 15(4), 2252 (1997)Google Scholar
8. Hanson, D.E., Voter, A.F., and Kress, J.D., J. Appl. Phys. 82(7), 3552 (1997)Google Scholar
9. Kratzer, M., Brinkmann, R.P., Sabisch, W., and Schmidt, H., submitted to J. Appl. Phys.Google Scholar
10. Stillinger, F.H. and Weber, T.A., Phys. Rev. B 31(8), 5262 (1985)Google Scholar
11. Stillinger, F.H. and Weber, T.A., J. Chem. Phys. 88(8), 5123 (1988)Google Scholar
12. Stillinger, F.H. and Weber, T.A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 62(18), 2144 (1989)Google Scholar
13. Weakliem, P.C. and Carter, E.A., J. Chem. Phys. 98(1), 737 (1993)Google Scholar
14. Feil, H., Dielman, J., and Garrison, B.J., J. Appl. Phys. 74(2), 1303 (1993)Google Scholar
15. Valone, S.M., Hanson, D.E., and Kress, J.D., unpublishedGoogle Scholar
16. Berendsen, H.J.C., Postma, J.P.M., Gunsteren, W.F. van, DiNola, A., and Haak, J.R., J. Chem. Phys. 81, 3684 (1984)Google Scholar