Etch products from the reaction of XeF2 with SiO2, Si3N4, SiC, and Si in the presence of ion bombardment

1983/10/01 by Harold F. Winters · 1 citation
Engineering · Materials Science · #Copper Interconnects and Reliability #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Semiconductor materials and devices

paper · doi:10.1116/1.582713

openalex publication_date 1983/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Modulated beam mass spectrometry has been used to identify the etch products desorbed during ion bombardment of SiO2, Si3N4, SiC, and Si in the presence of XeF2. The major silicon-containing product from all of these materials is SiF4 as judged by the intensity of the SiF+3 peak. The radicals SiF and SiF2 are observed but in much smaller quantities. N2 and O2 are major etch products from Si3N4 and SiO2, respectively. No other compounds of oxygen or nitrogen were observed. The major ‘‘carbon-containing’’ product from SiC was not identified. The product distributions are relatively independent of XeF2 flux, ion energy, and the type of ion (i.e., Ar+ or CF+3). Rough estimates for the relative etch rates of these materials have also been obtained. The product distributions are consistent with an interpretation which suggests that ‘‘chemical sputtering’’ is the dominant (but not the only) mechanism for producing ion-enhanced etching.

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