H2020Индивидуална стипендия2016–2018

Cryoetch · Computer modelling and experimental validation of plasmas and plasma- surface interactions, for a deep insight in cryogenic etching

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2016-06-08 → 2018-06-07
Финансиране от ЕС: 160 800 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Криогенното ецване изследва как охлаждането на полупроводникови пластини с газове като C4F8 предпазва порестите материали от повреди при обработка с плазма. Това помага за оптимизиране на производството на по-малки и прецизни електронни компоненти.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Computer modelling and experimental validation of plasmas and plasma- surface interactions, for a deep insight in cryogenic etching

As the electronic feature dimensions in the semiconductor industry are continuously shrinking, porous materials are increasingly being used as inter-metal insulators to address the critical need for a low dielectric constant (low-k). However, the current state-of-the-art plasma etch recipes face challenges for etching porous material, i.e. plasma induced damage (PID), as radicals and ions can easily penetrate into the interconnected pores, causing severe damage. Currently the most promising technique for fast low-k material etching with limited PID is cryogenic etching. By cooling the wafer to cryogenic temperatures in fluorocarbon based gas (e.g., C4F8 and C6F6) before plasma processing, this gas may condense in the pores as liquid, which can prevent the diffusion of radicals into the interconnected pores during the subsequent plasma etching. A fundamental understanding of the mechanisms is highly desired to further optimize the plasma etch processes. Therefore, this project intended to obtain more fundamental insight in the underlying plasma behaviour during cryogenic etching, the surface reaction mechanisms, and the etch process with pore-stuffing (with condensed C4F8), by means of extensive modeling, validated by experimental diagnostics. This project provided a theoretical foundation and guidance for research and industrial applications of the plasma processing of porous material.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Microchips have caused a revolution in electronics over the last few decades. Following Moore's law, much effort has been put into continuously shrinking electronic feature dimensions. Indeed, typical feature sizes of semi-conductor decreased from 10 µm in 1971 to 14 nm in 2014. With the shrinkage of feature sizes, plasma etching plays a more and more important role due to its anisotropy during surface processing.However, to go beyond 14 nm features, current state-of-the-art plasma processing faces significant challenges, such as plasma induced damage. Recently, one such novel process with limited plasma damage is cryogenic etching of low-k material with SF6/O2/SiF4 and CxFy plasmas.In this project, the fundamental mechanisms of the plasma, and its interaction with the surface, for these gas mixtures, will be studied to improve cryogenic plasma etching.For this purpose, numerical models (a hybrid Monte Carlo - fluid model and molecular dynamics model) will be employed to describe (i) the plasma behavior for SF6/O2/SiF4 and CxFy gas mixtures applied for cryogenic etching, and (ii) the surface interactions of the plasma species with the substrate during etching.Furthermore, cryogenic etch experiments will also be conducted to validate the modeling results during the secondment. Such an interdisciplinary project, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer modeling and chemical engineering, will definitely widen the applicant’s expertise in different plasma investigation approaches.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN · AntwerpenКоординаторБелгия