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Reactive ion etching of TiN, TiAlN, CrN and TiCN Films in CF4/O2 and CHF3/O2 Plasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Patrick W. Leech ,
G. K. Reeves  and
A. S. Holland
Patrick W. Leech
Affiliation:
Patrick.Leech@csiro.au, CSIRO CMIT, PRIVATE BAG 33,, CLAYTON SOUTH MDC, CLAYTON, VICTORIA, 3169, Australia, +613-9545-2791
G. K. Reeves
Affiliation:
RMIT University, School of Computer Systems and Electrical Eng., Melbourne, Australia.
A. S. Holland
Affiliation:
RMIT University, School of Computer Systems and Electrical Eng., Melbourne, Australia.
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Abstract

The reactive ion etching of a range of hard coatings (TiN, TiCN, CrN and TiAlN) has been examined as a function of rf power, flow rate and pressure. The films were deposited by filtered arc deposition (TiN, TiAlN and CrN) or low energy electron beam (TiCN) on polished disc substrates of M2 tool steel. The flat surfaces were lithographically patterned with a grating structure (∼1 μm pitch). The TiN and TiCN layers have shown significantly higher etch rates (100-250 nm/min) than the CrN and TiAlN (∼5 nm/min) coatings. These regimes of higher and low etch rate were identified as ion-enhanced chemical etching and physical sputtering, respectively. In CF4/O2 plasma, the etch rate of the TiN and TiCN layers increased with rf power, flow rate and pressure which were parameters known to enhance the density of active fluorine species. The etch rates of TiN and TiCN layers were higher in CF4/O2 plasma than in CHF3/O2 gases in which polymer deposition was produced at pressure ≥ 35 mTorr.

Keywords

reactive ion etchingcoatingmicrostructure
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 890: Symposium Y – Surface Engineering for Manufacturing Applications , 2005 , 0890-Y08-13
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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