Computational study of the CF4/CHF3/H2/Cl2/O2/HBr gas phase plasma chemistry

A modelling study is performed of high-density low-pressure inductively coupled CF4/CHF3/H-2/Cl-2/O-2/HBr plasmas under different gas mixing ratios. A reaction set describing the complete plasma chemistry is presented and discussed. The gas fraction of each component in this mixture is varied to investigate the sensitivity of the plasma properties, like electron density, plasma potential and species densities, towards the gas mixing ratios. This research is of great interest for microelectronics applications because these gases are often combined in two (or more)-component mixtures, and mixing gases or changing the fraction of a gas can sometimes yield unwanted reaction products or unexpected changes in the overall plasma properties due to the increased chemical complexity of the system. Increasing the CF4 fraction produces more F atoms for chemical etching as expected, but also more prominently lowers the density of Cl atoms, resulting in an actual drop in the etch rate under certain conditions. Furthermore, CF4 decreases the free electron density when mixed with Cl-2. However, depending on the other gas components, CF4 gas can also sometimes enhance free electron density. This is the case when HBr is added to the mixture. The addition of H-2 to the gas mixture will lower the sputtering process, not only due to the lower overall positive ion density at higher H-2 fractions, but also because more H+, H2+ and H3+ are present and they have very low sputter yields. In contrast, a larger Cl-2 fraction results in more chemical etching but also in less physical sputtering due to a smaller abundance of positive ions. Increasing the O-2 fraction in the plasma will always lower the etch rate due to more oxidation of the wafer surface and due to a lower plasma density. However, it is also observed that the density of F atoms can actually increase with rising O-2 gas fraction. This is relevant to note because the exact balance between fluorination and oxidation is important for fine-tuning the overall etch rate and for control of the sidewall profile. Finally, HBr is often used as a chemical etcher, but when mixed with F-or Cl-containing gases, HBr creates the same diluting effects as Ar or He, because a higher fraction results in less chemical etching but more (physical) sputtering.