Specific Process Knowledge/Etch/RIE (Reactive Ion Etch)

Etching using the dry etch technique RIE (Reactive Ion Etch)

At Danchip we have three RIE's. Two (RIE1 and RIE2) for etching silicon based materials (silicon, silicon oxide, sillicon nitride) and one (III-V RIE) for etching III-V materials (is discussed under III-V processing). The hardware of RIE1 and RIE2 is very similar but you cannot count on that identical recipes on RIE1 and RIE2 perform exactly the same. In addition to that the main difference between RIE1 and RIE2 is the cleanness of the two equipment. In rough terms RIE1 is the clean system and the RIE2 is the dirty system. This means that in RIE2 opposed to RIE1 it is allowed have small amounts of metals exposed to the plasma. Look in the manuals for RIE1 and RIE2 to read the details for this difference (you can find the manuals in LabManager [1]).

Process information

A rough overview of the performance of PECVD thin films and some process related parameters

Purpose	Deposition of dielectrica	Silicon oxide Silicon nitride Silicon oxynitride PBSG (Phosphorous Boron doped Silica Glass) Silicon oxide doped with Germanium
Performance	Film thickness	~10nm - 30µm
.	Index of refraction	~1.4-2.1
.	Step coverage	In general: Not so good PBSG: Floats at 1000^oC
.	Film quality	Not so dense film Hydrogen will be incorporated in the films
Process parameter range	Process Temperature	300 ^oC
.	Process pressure	~200-900 mTorr
.	Gas flows	SiH $_{4}$ :0-60 sccm N $_{2}$ O:0-3000 sccm NH $_{3}$ :0-1000 sccm N $_{2}$ :0-3000 sccm GeH $_{4}$ :0-6.00 sccm 5%PH $_{3}$ :0-99 sccm 5%B $_{2}$ H $_{6}$ :0-1000 sccm
Substrates	Batch size	1-3 4" wafer per run 1 6" wafer per run Or several smaler pieces Deposition on one side of the substrate
.	Substrate material allowed	Silicon wafers with layers of silicon oxide or silicon (oxy)nitride Quartz wafers
.	Material allowed on the substrate	Aluminium All metals < 5% of the substrate coverage (ONLY PECVD3!)