Title

Wet etching studies of silicon nitride thin films deposited by electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Authors

Authors

K. B. Sundaram; R. E. Sah; H. Baumann; K. Balachandran;R. M. Todi

Abbreviated Journal Title

Microelectron. Eng.

Keywords

silicon nitride films; wet etching; ECR-PECVD; SINX; OXYNITRIDE; MASK; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Nanoscience & Nanotechnology; Optics; Physics, Applied

Abstract

Silicon nitride films of various compositions have been deposited on silicon substrate by electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD) technique from mixtures of Ar, N-2 and SiH4, as precursors. Film composition and refractive index as a function of deposition parameters like gas flow ratio and pressure were studied. Wet etching studies were conducted using diluted phosphoric acid and buffered oxide etch (BOE) solutions of various concentrations. The etching studies using phosphoric acid were conducted in the temperature range of 70-90 degreesC. For BOE the temperature range was 25-55 degreesC. The etch rate with BOE solution is much higher than with phosphoric acid. The results indicate that the mechanism of etching with phosphoric acid is different from that with BOE solution. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Microelectronic Engineering

Volume

70

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2003

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

109

Last Page

114

WOS Identifier

WOS:000185984900015

ISSN

0167-9317

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