Poly-Si etching in Cl/sub 2/ plasma using electron-beam-excited plasma apparatus

Summary form only given, as follows. An electron-beam-excited plasma (EBEP) apparatus is able to produce high density plasma (i.e., high ion-current) under low pressure of the order of 0.1 Pa. In addition, the energy and density of the electron beam for plasma generation can independently be controlled by accelerating voltage V/sub A/ and discharge current I/sub D/, respectively. As one of its applications, poly-Si etching is tried in a pure Cl/sub 2/ plasma by means of reactive ion etching. An under cut on etched wafer tends to decrease as V/sub A/ increases, since sheath potential increases as V/sub A/ increases.