Characteristics and Recovery of SI Surfaces Plasma Etching in CHF₃ / C₂F₆

Abstract

The effects of Si02 reactive ion etching (RIE) in CHF3 / C2F6 on the surface properties of the underlying Si substrate have been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) techniques. The observed two major modifications are (i) a -50nm thick silicon layer which contains carbon and fluorine and (ii) 2-3nm thick residue layer composed entirely of carbon, fluorine, oxygen and hydrogen on the silicon surface. The thermal behaviors of attributed peaks for C is, Si 2p, 0 Is and