Chlorine Trifluoride Gas Transport and Etching Rate Distribution in Silicon Carbide Dry Etcher

Yajima, Dairi; Nakagomi, Ken; Habuka, Hitoshi; Kato, Tomohisa

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.821-823.553

Cited by 8 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Additionally, the chlorine trifluoride gas could etch a large-diameter wafer using a large scale etcher. 10 For practically applying such a high rate etching technique for electronic device fabrication, the silicon carbide surface after the etching should be carefully studied. Previous studies [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] have reported that the silicon carbide surface often had a carbon film residue after the chlorine trifluoride etching.…”

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Formation and Removal of Carbon Film on Silicon Carbide Surface Using Chlorine Trifluoride Gas

Hirooka

Habuka

Takahashi

et al. 2016

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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A carbon film was formed and reduced by etching of the silicon carbide surface using chlorine trifluoride gas. The high rate silicon carbide etching at high temperatures, typically 600-750 • C, simultaneously produced the by-product of a carbon film on the silicon carbide surface. It was often thicker than several hundred nanometers. The formed carbon film could be removed by the same etchant, chlorine trifluoride gas, at temperatures lower than 400 • C. For the practical use of the high rate etching, a combination of a high and low temperature etching is useful.

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Formation and Removal of Carbon Film on Silicon Carbide Surface Using Chlorine Trifluoride Gas

Hirooka

Habuka

Takahashi

et al. 2016

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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“…These previous studies using a polycrystalline 3C-silicon carbide wafer showed that the entire etching rate profile depended on the chlorine trifluoride gas concentration. The relationship between the etching rate distribution and the chlorine trifluoride gas concentration has been analyzed and clarified by means of the numerical calculations accounting for the transport phenomena [4,5] in the reactor. Next, for applying this technique to the power device fabrication process, the 4H-silicon carbide should be evaluated [7].…”

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4H-Silicon Carbide Wafer Surface after Chlorine Trifluoride Gas Etching

Okuyama

Kurashima

Nakagomi

et al. 2018

MSF

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In order to develop the high etching rate reactor for silicon carbide, the 50-mm-diameter C-face 4H-silicon carbide wafer was etched using the chlorine trifluoride gas at 500 °C. By the deep etching, the concentric-circle-shaped valleys were formed at the positions corresponding to the radii of the pin-hole arrays of the gas distributor, as predicted by the calculation. The etching rate profile of 4H-silicon carbide was concluded to have a relationship with the local chlorine trifluoride gas supply . The wafer bow was small, even the wafer was very thin, about 160 μm thick.

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“…[13][14][15][16] In this reactor, the entire etching rate profile over the 50 mm-diameter polycrystalline 3C-silicon carbide wafer depended on the concentration and flow of the chlorine trifluoride gas. Based on a numerical calculation accounting for the transport phenomena, 14,15 the relationship between the local etching rate profile and the chlorine trifluoride gas transport was determined. For further development, the single-crystalline 4H-silicon carbide wafer should be used for evaluating the influence of the chlorine trifluoride gas transport.…”

Section: 17mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, as an extension of previous studies, [13][14][15][16] the C-face 4H-silicon carbide single-crystalline wafer was etched using the chlorine trifluoride gas. The relationship of the etching rate profile with the chlorine trifluoride gas supply was studied using a significantly deep etching condition.…”

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Mirror Etching of Single Crystalline C-Face 4H-Silicon Carbide Wafer by Chlorine Trifluoride Gas

Okuyama¹,

Kurashima²,

Habuka³

et al. 2017

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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In order to evaluate the potential of a non-plasma dry etcher for silicon carbide, a 50-mm-diameter C-face 4H-silicon carbide wafer was etched using chlorine trifluoride gas at 500 • C. The wafer deformation was sufficiently small after the repetitive etching, even though the wafer was very thin, that is, about 160-μm thick. When the wafer surface was significantly etched, concentric-circleshaped valleys were formed at the radii corresponding to the circular-shaped arrays of pinholes at the gas distributor. Because the local pattern of the 4H-silicon carbide wafer etching rate corresponded to that of the chlorine trifluoride gas supply, the etching rate distribution was determined to be mainly governed by the chlorine trifluoride gas flow. Because the surface morphology and roughness after the etching was comparable to that of the mirror-polished wafer surface, the etcher evaluated in this study was expected to have a significant potential for mirror etching. In order to reduce the electric energy loss, power electronics 1-3 is currently playing major roles and making enormous contributions over the world. The power devices have various key positions to govern and improve the overall power consumption efficiency. They will have more functions and capabilities achieved by advancing the technologies of material production and device designs.The power devices are made of semiconductor materials, 2,3 such as silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). The silicon carbide power devices have been developed by many researchers and engineers due to their fascinating nature, such as a high dielectric breakdown voltage, for high voltage use. The silicon carbide power devices are actually installed and currently working in trains and vehicles.2,3 Because the power device demand will further increase in the future, the process of silicon carbide material production should be improved.The significantly hard and nonreactive properties of the silicon carbide very often make the device fabrication processes long and complex. When the wafer back side is thinned by mechanical or chemical mechanical polishing after the device fabrication, the thinning processes require several hours or more. The removal rate is still about 0.2 μm/min when the plasma and Pt catalyst are used for the polishing.4-10 For developing a high speed process, an alternative high speed process, such as chemical etching, is expected.For improving the removal rate by the chemical approach, chlorine trifluoride (ClF 3 ) gas 11-17 is expected to be useful. The chlorine trifluoride gas has been reported to quickly etch the Si-and C-faces single-crystalline 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) material at a high rate, such as 5 μm/min.11 The C-face 4H-silicon carbide could be etched while maintaining the mirror-polished surface. 11,17In order to realize an industrial-scale wafer etching process, the SiC single-wafer dry etcher has been designed, fabricated and evaluated. [13][14][15][16] In this reactor, the entire etching rate profile over the 50 mm-diamet...

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Chlorine Trifluoride Gas Transport and Etching Rate Distribution in Silicon Carbide Dry Etcher

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

Formation and Removal of Carbon Film on Silicon Carbide Surface Using Chlorine Trifluoride Gas

Formation and Removal of Carbon Film on Silicon Carbide Surface Using Chlorine Trifluoride Gas

4H-Silicon Carbide Wafer Surface after Chlorine Trifluoride Gas Etching

Mirror Etching of Single Crystalline C-Face 4H-Silicon Carbide Wafer by Chlorine Trifluoride Gas

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