Plasma charging damage on silicon surface during reverse-AA oxide etching in poly-buffered STI (PB-STI) isolation process

Author

Liou, Y.H. ; Chen, Y.S. ; Wu, C.S. ; Tsai, C.S. ; Chi, M.

Author_Institution

DRAM Technol. Div., Taiwan Semicond. Manuf. Corp., Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

33

Lastpage

35

Abstract

Plasma induced defects (or pits) are found in the active area near the corner and boundary of trench after reverse-active area (AA) etching in a poly buffered STI (PB-STI) process. The defect mechanism is demonstrated in this paper as related to the charging of the poly buffer layer and subsequent arcing at weak points (between poly buffer layer and AA) through pad-oxide during R-AA etching. Such arcing and defect generation is strongly enhanced by magnetic fields and not related to etching rate or plasma density

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; arcs (electric); dielectric thin films; elemental semiconductors; isolation technology; magnetic fields; plasma materials processing; silicon; sputter etching; surface charging; surface topography; PB-STI process; R-AA etching; Si; SiO₂-Si; active area; arcing; defect generation; defect mechanism; etching rate; isolation process; magnetic fields; pad-oxide; plasma charging damage; plasma density; plasma induced defects; plasma induced pits; poly buffer layer charging; poly-buffered STI process; reverse-AA oxide etching; reverse-active area etching; silicon surface; trench isolation; Buffer layers; CMOS technology; Couplings; Etching; Magnetic fields; Plasma applications; Plasma materials processing; Silicon; Surface charging; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma- and Process-Induced Damage, 2001 6th International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Monterey, CA

Print_ISBN

0-9651577-5-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PPID.2001.929972

Filename

929972