Surface science aspects of etching reactions

Abstract

Basic studies of the surface science aspects of plasma-assisted etching were initiated over 10 years ago in laboratories throughout the world. Several approaches to this experimentally challenging problem have been taken: (1) simulate the reactive gas glow discharge environment with directed beams of energetic positive ions and thermal energy reactive molecules/radicals in a UHV environment; (2) simulate the reactive gas glow discharge by using a beam of reactive ions (reactive ion beam etching); and (3) carry out careful ex-situ analyses of surfaces etched in reactive gas glow discharges without air exposure. This report will be limited to a review of the work reported using the first of these approaches only and summarizes the status of this virtually unexplored field of surface chemistry. The report includes a discussion of the experimental aspects of this field and then focuses on the gas-solid system which has been studied most thoroughly; i.e., silicon-fluorine. A considerable quantity of new unpublished data is presented and a framework is proposed to explain the many observations associated with the spontaneous reaction of fluorine with silicon. The role of energetic ions in this reaction is then discussed in detail. Other materials combinations which are discussed are silicon-chlorine, silicon-bromine, silicon-hydrogen and SiO2-fluorine. The report concludes with a tabulation of the many other gas-solid systems which have been studied and also a discussion of the extent to which these basic studies relate to actual reactive gas processing environments. © 1992.