Significant Improvement of Copper Dry Etching Property of a High-Pressure Hydrogen-Based Plasma by Nitrogen Gas Addition.

The characteristics of copper (Cu) isotropic dry etching using a hydrogen-based plasma generated at 13.3 kPa (100 Torr) were improved dramatically by simply introducing a moderate amount of N gas into the process atmosphere. A maximum Cu etch rate of 2.

Voltage distribution over capacitively coupled plasma electrode for atmospheric-pressure plasma generation.

When capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) is used to generate large-area plasma, the standing wave effect becomes significant, which results in the hindering of the uniform plasma process such as in a plasma etcher or plasma chemical vapor deposition. In this study, the transmission line modeling method is applied to calculate the voltage distribution over atmospheric-pressure CCP electrodes with the size of 1 m × 0.2 m.

Interface properties of SiOxNy layer on Si prepared by atmospheric-pressure plasma oxidation-nitridation.

SiOxNy films with a low nitrogen concentration (< 4%) have been prepared on Si substrates at 400°C by atmospheric-pressure plasma oxidation-nitridation process using O2 and N2 as gaseous precursors diluted in He. Interface properties of SiOxNy films have been investigated by analyzing high-frequency and quasistatic capacitance-voltage characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors. It is found that addition of N into the oxide increases both interface state density (Dit) and positive fixed charge density (Qf).

Study on the growth of heteroepitaxial cubic silicon carbide layers in atmospheric-pressure H2-based plasma.

The heteroepitaxial growths of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) layers on Si(001) substrates are studied at a temperature of 800 degrees C in atmospheric-pressure (AP) plasma excited by a 150 MHz, very high-frequency (VHF) power using a porous carbon electrode. The effect of a very large C/Si ratio (-400) of the source molecules on the improvement of crystallinity of the resultant SiC layer is mainly investigated. For this purpose, we utilize the chemical transport of Si induced by AP H2/CH4 plasma instead of using SiH4 as the Si source.

Room-temperature formation of low refractive index silicon oxide films using atmospheric-pressure plasma.

This study aims to apply atmospheric-pressure (AP) plasma to the fabrication of single-layer anti-reflection (AR) coatings with porous silicon oxide. 150 MHz very high-frequency (VHF) excitation of AP plasma permits to enhance the chemical reactions both in the gas phase and on the film-growing surface, increasing deposition rate significantly. Silicon oxide films were prepared from silane (SiH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) dual sources diluted with helium.

Surface cleaning and etching of 4H-SiC(0001) using high-density atmospheric pressure hydrogen plasma.

We propose low-damage and high-efficiency treatment of 4H-SiC(0001) surfaces using atmospheric pressure (AP) hydrogen plasma. Hydrogen radicals generated by the AP plasma was found to effectively remove damaged layers on SiC wafers and improve surface morphology by isotropic etching. Localized high-density AP plasma generated with a cylindrical rotary electrode provides a high etching rate of 1.

Center of excellence for atomically controlled fabrication technology.

This short review aims to show the introduction of the educational and research program of "Center of excellence of atomically controlled fabrication technology" supported ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology--Japan. We would like to introduce research activity and a unique trait of educational system.