Morphology improvement of SiC trench by inductively coupled plasma etching using Ni/Al2O3 bilayer mask. (15th August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Jingjie; Cheng, Xinhong; Wang, Qian; Zheng, Li; Shen, Lingyan; Li, Xinchang; Zhang, Dongliang; Zhu, Hongyue; Shen, DaShen; Yu, Yuehui
• Is Part Of: Materials science in semiconductor processing. Volume 67(2017)
• Page Start: 104
• Page End: 109
• Publication Date: 2017-08-15
• Subjects: SiC -- ICP etching -- Ni/Al2O3 mask -- Contamination -- Micro-mask -- Micro-trench; Semiconductors -- Periodicals; Integrated circuits -- Materials -- Periodicals; Semiconducteurs -- Périodiques; Circuits intégrés -- Matériaux -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 621.38152
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2017.05.022
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-8001

Abstract

Abstract: In this work, we performed an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching of SiC substrates using different masks including SiO2, Ni, Ni/SiO2 and Ni/Al2 O3, and the properties of trenches were systemically analyzed. In comparison with other three masks, Ni/Al2 O3 mask prevented contamination of F or Ni element from diffusion into SiC, and achieved the optimized trench morphology with a surface roughness of 0.2 nm, steep sidewall and no micro-trench at the corner. Al2 O3 dielectric films were deposited on trenches by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), and its critical breakdown electrical field was much higher with Ni/Al2 O3 mask, which could reach 7.7 MV/cm. So it was believed that Ni/Al2 O3 mask ensured the formation of SiC trench with superior morphology.