1. Introduction
As the size of ultra-large-scale integrated circuit (ULSI) devices becomes smaller and the degree of circuit integration increases, the critical dimension of the devices keeps shrinking. This necessitates the need for high-aspect-ratio SiO
2 contact-hole etching, which has become more important than ever [
1,
2,
3]. During high aspect ratio contact-hole etching, high-energy ions are subjected to colliding with a mask such as photoresists and amorphous carbon layers (ACLs), causing damage and corrosion to the mask. This results in various pattern deformations such as bowing, necking, and tilting [
4]. These deformations lead to defects in the ULSI devices and reduce the degree of circuit integration by decreasing the margin between holes. Therefore, minimizing pattern deformation is crucial.
Etching of SiO
2 contact holes is mainly performed using fluorocarbon plasmas such as tetrafluoromethane (CF
4) and octafluorocyclobutane (c-C
4F
8) plasmas [
5,
6,
7]. When a substrate is exposed to the fluorocarbon plasmas, a passivating fluorocarbon film is formed on the surface of the substrate. The fluorocarbon film protects the mask and the sidewalls of contact holes from etching, thus increasing etch selectivity (with respect to the mask) and enabling anisotropic profiles with high aspect ratios. The etch selectivity and anisotropy of the contact holes depend on the amount or thickness of the fluorocarbon films formed on the surface of the mask and the sidewalls of the contact holes, respectively. A low degree of fluorocarbon-film formation (or thin fluorocarbon films) reduces the etch selectivity, whereas a high degree of fluorocarbon-film formation (or thick fluorocarbon films) causes aspect-ratio-dependent etching [
8]. Therefore, to obtain an anisotropic contact-hole etching, controlling the thickness of the fluorocarbon film by adjusting the ratio of radicals and ions generated in the plasma is important.
The thickness of the fluorocarbon film can also be controlled by adding gases such as oxygen and hydrogen to the fluorocarbon plasma. Oxygen reduces the thickness of the fluorocarbon film by forming volatile reaction products such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO
2), and carbonyl fluoride (COF
2) [
9]. Hydrogen reacts with fluorine from the fluorocarbon plasmas and fluorocarbon films to form hydrogen fluoride (HF) [
10]. Fluorine scavenging by hydrogen reduces the fluorine-to-carbon ratio of the fluorocarbon film, leading to more cross-linked films.
Fluorocarbon gases such as CF
4 and c-C
4F
8, which are widely used for etching of SiO
2 contact holes, are perfluorocarbons (PFCs) with a high global warming potential (GWP) and a long lifetime that adversely affect global warming. According to the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the GWP
100s of PFC gases are thousands to tens of thousands of times higher than that of CO
2 [
11]. Thus, the use of PFC gases causes more serious environmental problems than CO
2.
Various compounds such as unsaturated fluorocarbons [
2,
12,
13], iodofluorocarbons [
14,
15], fluorinated ethers [
16,
17,
18,
19], and fluorinated alcohols [
3,
20] have been explored as lower-GWP alternatives to PFCs to develop an environmentally friendly etching process. Among them, fluorinated ethers are attracting attention because they have low GWPs and contain an oxygen atom. The presence of oxygen atoms in fluorinated ethers may provide oxygen radicals and ions in the plasma, contributing to SiO
2 etching. Higher etch rates of SiO
2 using fluorinated ethers than those using c-C
4F
8 were found in previous studies [
17]. Although several fluorinated ethers have been tested and found to be promising alternatives to PFCs for plasma etching of SiO
2, few studies on SiO
2 contact-hole etching using fluorinated ethers have been reported.
In this study, SiO2 contact holes were etched using heptafluoropropyl methyl ether (HFE-347mcc3)/oxygen (O2)/argon (Ar) plasmas, and the etch profiles were investigated at various ratios of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar. HFE-347mcc3 is a fluorinated ether with a GWP100 of ~530, which is significantly lower than that of PFCs. The angular dependences of the deposition rates of fluorocarbon films on the surface of SiO2 and the etch rate of SiO2 were also investigated to explain the shape evolution of SiO2 contact holes etched in HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasmas.
3. Results and Discussion
Figure 3 shows SEM images of SiO
2 holes etched in the HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar plasmas at various flow rates of HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar. In the SEM images, “Mcc3” denotes HFE-347mcc3. The vertical position at the interface between the ACL mask and the SiO
2 was set to zero. The downward direction was designated with a negative sign. When the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio was 0.40 (i.e., HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar = 8/2/20 sccm), the top diameter of the SiO
2 hole slightly decreased to 197 nm (from 200 nm before etching) and bowing of the hole was observed. Moreover, the top diameter remained constant even when the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio was increased to 0.47 (HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar = 9/2/19 sccm). However, narrowing rather than bowing occurred, and the etch profile appeared more anisotropic than that at 0.40 of HFE-347mcc3/Ar. As the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio further increased, the top diameter of the SiO
2 hole decreased, and the narrowing of the SiO
2 hole became more pronounced. Severe narrowing with the increasing HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio eventually resulted in an etch stop at the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios of 0.65 and 0.75.
To quantitatively analyze the shape evolution of contact-hole etch profiles at different HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios, the hole diameters are plotted as a function of the vertical position, as shown in
Figure 4. When the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio was 0.40 (HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar = 8/2/20 sccm), the hole diameter increased from its top diameter (zero vertical position) as the vertical position deepened, implying that the bowing of the hole occurred. Moreover, at this flow rate for HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar, the top diameter of the hole reached a maximum value of 221 nm at a vertical position of −661 nm and gradually diminished with the deepening of the vertical position until the bottom diameter of the hole finally reached 130 nm.
When the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio was 0.47 (HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar = 9/2/19 sccm), narrowing of the hole instead of bowing was observed. At this HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio, the hole diameter decreased from 197 nm at zero vertical position to 178 nm at a vertical position of −661 nm and then it increased to 194 nm at a vertical position of −1094 nm. Although the top and bottom diameters of the contact holes are similar at the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios of 0.40 and 0.47, respectively, the variation of the hole diameter with the vertical position was significantly weaker at the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio of 0.47 than at 0.40. This indicates that contact holes with higher anisotropy were obtained at the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio of 0.47. However, the anisotropy of the contact holes deteriorated with a further increase in the ratio of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar.
When the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio was 0.56 (HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar = 10/2/18 sccm), the hole diameter shrank to 144 nm at the vertical position of −661 nm. Although the hole diameter increased to 187 nm at the vertical position of −1094 nm, it decreased again rapidly with the deepening of the vertical position, resulting in a bottom diameter of only 75 nm.
When the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios were higher than 0.65 (HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar = 11/2/17 or 12/2/16 sccm), the hole diameter kept decreasing with the vertical position. The continuous narrowing inhibits the contact hole from reaching the bottom, ultimately resulting in an etch stop at HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios higher than 0.65. The plot of the hole diameter versus vertical position clearly reveals that there exists an optimum HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio for obtaining the maximum anisotropy of the contact hole etched in HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasmas.
The shape evolution of contact-hole etch profiles with increasing HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios may simply be attributed to two factors: increased etch resistance and/or decreased etch ability of the sidewalls of contact holes. To support this argument, the angular dependences of the deposition rate of fluorocarbon films on the surface of SiO2 and the etch rate of SiO2 at various flow rates of HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar were measured using a Faraday cage. The degree of deposition of the fluorocarbon films on the surface of SiO2 is regarded as the degree of etch resistance to the SiO2 because the ions and radicals generated in the plasma must penetrate this film to reach and react with SiO2.
Figure 5a shows the change in the deposition rates of the fluorocarbon films on SiO
2 with the ion-incident angles at various flow rates of HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar. The process conditions for fluorocarbon film deposition were the same as those for SiO
2 contact hole etching, except that no DC bias voltage was applied to the SiO
2 substrate during fluorocarbon film deposition (source power = 250 W, DC bias voltage = 0 V, chamber pressure = 1.33 Pa, electrode temperature = 15 °C). The deposition rates of fluorocarbon films determined in this study decreased monotonically with increasing the ion-incident angle under all conditions and agreed well with the previous reports on the etching of Si-based substrates using fluorocarbon plasma [
21]. Although the deposition rates of the fluorocarbon film decreased with increasing the ion-incident angle, the degree to which the deposition rate was reduced depended on the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio.
In order to clarify the angular dependence of the change in the deposition rate with the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio, the normalized deposition rate (NDR) was plotted at various HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios in
Figure 5b. The NDR is defined as the deposition rate at a specific angle normalized with respect to the deposition rate on the horizontal surface. The dotted line in the NDR plot represents a cosine curve. The NDRs presented in
Figure 5b clearly demonstrated that the extent of reduction in the deposition rate of the fluorocarbon film with ion-incident angle decreased as the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio increased. This implies the etch resistance of SiO
2 contact holes on the slanted sidewalls increased with increasing HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio. Therefore, the contact holes were less etched on the slanted sidewalls at higher HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios, leading to the narrowing of the holes.
Figure 6a shows the change in the etch rates of SiO
2 with the ion-incident angle at various flow rates of HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar. Under all conditions, the etch rates monotonically decreased with increasing ion-incident angles, which can also be typically observed in the etching of Si-based substrates using fluorocarbon plasmas [
22,
23]. When the ion-incident angles were greater than 80°, the etch rates exhibited negative values, indicating a net deposition at these angles. A net fluorocarbon-film deposition instead of substrate etching occurred at ion-incident angles greater than 80° because the flux of ions at high incident angles is negligible.
The etch rates of SiO2 at an ion-incident angle of zero (ions incident vertically on the surface) were nearly the same at all HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios employed in this study. However, the etch rates of SiO2 at slanted ion-incident angles decreased with increasing HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios. This is visualized more clearly through the normalized etch rate (NER).
Figure 6b shows the change in the NERs of SiO
2 with the ion-incident angle at various flow rates of HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar. Similar to the definition of the NDR, the NER represents the etch rate at a specific angle normalized to the etch rate on the horizontal surface. In all conditions, the NERs are above the cosine curve until the ion-incident angle reaches 50–60 degrees. This indicates that physical sputtering plays an important role during etching.
As the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio increased, the NER decreased more rapidly with increasing the ion-incident angle. The difference in the NERs at low and high ratios of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar increased with the ion-incident angle and reached a maximum value at 60°. This implies that changes in the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio primarily impact the etch capability of SiO2 contact holes on the slanted sidewalls rather than the bottom plane.
The results of the angular dependences of the deposition rates of fluorocarbon films on SiO2 and the etch rates of SiO2 at various HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios in HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasmas show that the surface of the SiO2 contact hole, particularly its sidewall rather than its bottom, becomes more etch-resistant and/or less etchable as the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio increases. This implies that the SiO2 contact hole exhibited more bowing at lower HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios and more narrowing at higher HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios. Therefore, the optimum ratio of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar should be selected to obtain the maximum anisotropy of the contact holes etched in HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasmas.
As shown in
Figure 3 and
Figure 4, the best anisotropic etch profile of the 200-nm-diameter contact hole in this study was obtained when the flow rate for HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar was set at 9/2/19 sccm. Note that a more anisotropic etch profile would be achieved when the flow rates for HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar were controlled more precisely, for example, HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar = 8.9/2/19.1 sccm.
Under these specific conditions of HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar = 9/2/19 sccm, a 100-nm-diameter contact hole was etched.
Figure 7 shows the SEM image of the contact hole with a diameter of 100 nm and an aspect ratio of 24 etched in an HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar plasma. A highly anisotropic and bowing-free 100-nm-diameter contact hole profile was successfully obtained when the flow rate for HFE-347mcc3/O
2/Ar was 9/2/19 sccm.
4. Conclusions
The effect of the flow rate ratio of HFE-347mcc3/Ar on the etch profiles was investigated during the etching of a SiO2 contact hole in an HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasma. When the ratio of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar was 0.40 (i.e., HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar = 8/2/20 sccm), bowing of the hole was observed. When the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio was increased from 0.40 to 0.47 (HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar = 9/2/19 sccm), narrowing of the hole occurred rather than bowing, and the etch profile appeared more anisotropic. As the ratio of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar was further increased, the narrowing of the contact hole worsened. Severe narrowing caused by increasing the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio eventually resulted in an etch stop at the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios of 0.65 and 0.75.
The angular dependence of the deposition rate of fluorocarbon films on the surface of SiO2, which was measured using a Faraday cage, showed that the extent of reduction in the deposition rate of the fluorocarbon film with ion-incident angle decreased as the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio increased. In addition, the measurement of the change in the etch rates of SiO2 with the ion-incident angle revealed that the etch rates of SiO2 at slanted ion-incident angles decreased with increasing the HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio. These results imply that the surface of the SiO2 contact hole, particularly its sidewall rather than its bottom, becomes more etch-resistant and/or less etchable with an increasing HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratio. Therefore, the SiO2 contact hole exhibited more bowing at lower HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios and more narrowing at higher HFE-347mcc3/Ar ratios in the HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasma.
Finally, by selecting the optimum flow rate ratio of HFE-347mcc3 to Ar, a highly anisotropic and bowing-free profile of the contact hole (diameter = 100 nm and aspect ratio = 24) was successfully obtained in the HFE-347mcc3/O2/Ar plasma. This work highlights the potential of using HFE-347mcc3 as a lower-GWP alternative to PFCs for etching SiO2 contact holes.