Over the past few years, numerous countries and semiconductor manufacturing entities have unveiled their commitments to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or even sooner. When it comes to manufacturing chips, plasma etch processes contribute significantly to emissions, especially in dielectric etching. These processes typically involve the use of high global warming potential (GWP) fluorocarbon gasses like CHF3, CF4, and CH2F2. Air Liquide's research and development (R&D) endeavors have led to the creation of multiple alternative etch chemistries for SiN and SiO2 etching applications that boast remarkably low GWPs. Despite strides in developing these alternative chemistries, accurately forecasting the gases emitted post-plasma remains elusive. The complexities inherent in the breakdown and recombination processes within the plasma make it challenging to predict the specific emissions, regardless of whether the gas introduced into the plasma etch chamber carries a high or low GWP. This research showcases the utilization of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to analyze and measure the emission gas stream from the plasma etch chamber. Moreover, the innovative chemistries developed by Air Liquide have exhibited enhanced etch performance while resulting in lower CO2 equivalent emissions compared to the current baseline in dielectric etching.
Fluorinated species are ubiquitous in semiconductor manufacturing, yet are known to have global warming potentials thousands of times higher than CO2. As abatement technologies are not completely effective and add additional costs, interest in reducing these emissions increases with semiconductor manufacturing volumes. We explore alternative chemistries for common plasma etch applications that retain patterning performance but with near zero GWP. Spectroscopic identification and quantification of etch byproducts is presented to demonstrate the beneficial environmental impacts of transitioning from the most common etch gasses.
This study provides a new chemistry composition as an effective etchant with a plasma-less dry process for selectively etching Si3N4 to SiO2 with selectivity over 200. Both blanket and patterned wafers were examined. To investigate the parameters affecting selectivity, blanket wafers were tested. Etch rate and selectivity can be optimized by tuning the etchant concentration, chamber temperature and chamber pressure. The selectivity can be tuned from 10 to over 200 depending on the testing condition. It was found nearly etch stop of SiO2 with increasing the etching time, leading to higher selectivity with increasing the processing time. Under the optimized condition, etching rates of Si3N4 > 30 nm/min and SiO2 < 0.2 nm/min were obtained. It was also demonstrated on 3D-NAND patterned wafers of ONON stacked layer with pre-etched holes. The Si3N4 layers can be removed with lateral etching rate >20 nm/min, while maintaining the SiO2 layer.
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