Correlation between film properties and anhydrous HF vapor etching behavior of silicon oxide deposited by CVD methods

Heini Ritala*, Jyrki Kiihamäki, Esa Puukilainen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The anhydrous HF vapor etching of sacrificial silicon dioxide films grown by plasma-enhanced and low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (PECVD and LPCVD) methods was studied. The film compositions and etch residue were analyzed as part of the study. The effects of the oxide deposition method, precursors, annealing and oxide composition on the etch rate are discussed. Annealing decreases the etch rate and removes water and other hydrogen-containing residue from the films. Films grown using a tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) precursor etch fast, unannealed films even 30 times faster than thermal oxide and they also contain more OH–species than films from SiH4 precursors even after annealing. The etch rate of all CVD films is close to that of thermal oxide after annealing at 1000 °C, around 0.1 µm/min. Etch rate differences between CVD films are much larger than those observed during wet HF etching.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)D399-D402
    JournalJournal of the Electrochemical Society
    Volume158
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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