RESEARCH ARTICLE | MAY 01 1986

Design of plasma etching and deposition systems

H. Y. Kumagai

Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 4, 1800–1804 (1986)

https://doi.org/10.1116/1.573943

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Design of plasma etching and deposition systems
H. Y. Kumagai
AT&T Technology Systems, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103
(Received 28 August 1985; accepted 23 September 1985)
Plasma etching and plasma deposition are widely used processes in the fabrication of
microelectronic devices. The design of equipment used to carry out these processes involves
vacuum technology as well as numerous considerations involved in the mechanical and electrical
design of such machinery. In this paper, the design concepts will be discussed with reference to
commercially available machinery as examples of functional designs.

I. GENERAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS the machine controller except when reactants are required
The diagram of Fig. 1 shows the major components of a by the process. The remotely actuated gas supply valves
plasma deposition or plasma etching system. In operation, should be of the so-called normally closed design to ensure
the reactant gases flow at controlled rates into a process that the valves will be automatically closed in the event of an
chamber from which they are continuously pumped, along electrical power failure or when the compressed air supply
with any gas phase reaction products, by the vacuum system. pressure is abnormally low. In other words, the supply of
The materials of construction of the apparatus that is ex- hazardous reactant gases should be shut off under conditions

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posed to the reactant gas stream must be inert to these gases. in which normal machine operation is not possible.
Two widely used materials in plasma machinery are stain- Safeguards should be included in the system hardware to
less steel and aluminum alloys. Of the commonly used stain- prevent a situation in which reactants flow into the process
less steel alloys, type 316 is more corrosion resistant than chamber while the vacuum pumps are not active. An exam-
type 304, and is the preferred material among these two. ple of a hard-wired set of interlocks to accomplish this is (1)
Aluminum alloys are vulnerable to attack by HCI forming a mechanical vacuum switch connected to the process
reactants and Lewis acids such as boron trichloride. The life chamber, (2) a position sensor on the main vacuum valve
of turbomolecular vacuum pumps, which are largely con- between the reaction chamber and the vacuum system, and
structed of aluminum alloys, can be extended by maintain- (3) a rotation sensor on the mechanical vacuum pump.
ing the foreline pressure at the lowest pressure consistent These interlocks would be wired in series to verify the simul-
with reasonable vacuum system design. Aluminum mechan- taneous occurrence of ( 1) sufficient process chamber vacu-
ical pump bodies can be chemically treated to make them um, (2) open valve in the vacuum pumping line, and (3)
more resistant to these chlorine based reactants. Cast iron active vacuum pumping. Satisfying this set of interlocks
vacuum pump bodies offer better corrosion resistance and would be a requirement in order to turn on the hazardous gas
should be used for difficult cases. supply valves.
Elastomer seals are used in plasma equipment as vacuum
seals, pressure seals in the gas supply system, and as valve II. PROCESS CHAMBER DESIGN
seals in mass flow controllers. Most problems of incompati- One of the main considerations in designing the process
bility between reactant gases and elastomers occur at elevat- chamber is the electrode configuration. In the case of paral-
ed pressure. For example, at room temperature and about 20 lel electrodes of equal area, the rf discharge and the electric
psig ammonia rapidly degrades Viton, rendering it hard and field in the interelectrode region is symmetrical. This is illus-
brittle within a few weeks. However, Viton seals in a vacuum trated in Fig. 2 in which the time averaged dc potential' is
station with ammonia partial pressures of about 1 Torr show
little or at least very slow deterioration. Ethylene-propylene
elastomers show good resistance to ammonia over a wide
range of pressures, making them the materials of choice in
handling ammonia. Some gases are so reactive that they at-
PROCESS vACUU~i
tack elastomers even at reduced pressure. A case in point is GAS SUPPLY
CHAMBER SYSTEM
boron trichloride which rapidly degrades Viton even at pres-
"- I
sures on the order of 100 mTorr. A solution to this problem /
/

/
is Kalrez, a relatively new and expensive perfluoroelas- /
/
tomer, that is chemically resistant to a wide variety of mate- I /
I
rials. However, even this elastomer is not a universal sealing /
/

/
material. It is subject to swelling on exposure to 1000 psig V
nitrogen trifluoride, and possibly other gases as well. It is CONTROLLER

necessary, therefore, to properly select elastomers for com-

patibility with the reactants that are to be used.
If the reactant gases are classified as hazardous, then it is FIG. I. Diagram showing the major components of a plasma etching or
good safety practice that the gas supply lines are shut off by plasma deposition system.

1800 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 4 (3), May/Jun 1986 0734-2101/86/031800-05$01.00 © 1986 American Vacuum Society 1800
1801 H. Y. Kumagai: Design of plasma etching 1801

p; rf power, P2 > P1
p ; pressure, P2 <P1

OJ
en
ro
'-
~ 0 *----------'~
u
>'" OJ

~>
OJ 0 +~+=~~========~
<t

u
>'"

FIG. 2. Time averaged dc potential vs distance for a capacitively coupled rf

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glow discharge with equal electrode areas. The electric field strength is the
same on the two electrodes. The field increases with increasing power (con-
stant pressure) or with decreasing pressure (constant power).

shown as a function of position between the electrodes for

FIG. 3. Time averaged dc potential vs distance for a capacitively coupled rf
two different rf power levels, assuming constant chamber glow discharge with unequal electrode areas. The electric field strength is
pressure. The electric field strength increases with higher higher on the smaller electrode. The field increases with increasing power
power (P 2 > PI) and is symmetric about the electrodes. (constant pressure) or with decreasing pressure (constant power). ( - VI)
This implies that the wafers to be processed could be in con- and ( - V2 ) are negative "dc bias voltages" on the smaller electrode.
tact with either electrode with identical results. If higher
electric field strength is required in order to achieve the de- With this type of system, typical operating pressures are
sired processing results, such as greater etching anisotropy, on the order of 20-50 mTorr and dc bias voltages on the
one approach is to increase rfpower. Alternatively, the elec- smaller electrode are usually several hundred volts. Etch
tric field strength can be increased at constant power by re- rates on films such as silicon nitride and polysilicon are gen-
ducing the chamber pressure (P2 <P 1)' erally in the range of 500-1000 A/min. Twenty-four 100
The case of unequal electrode areas is illustrated in Fig. 3. mm wafers can be etched at the same time with good process
This technique is usually followed in the construction of re- control. A new version of this type of machine is now being
active ion etching (RIE) machines. RIE is sometimes re- manufactured in which wafers are loaded and unloaded
ferred to as reactive sputter etching (RSE) and the nomen- through an intermediate vacuum load lock. This improves
clature is used interchangeably. In Fig. 3, it is shown that the machine throughput by largely eliminating the times re-
higher electric field is associated with the smaller electrode. quired for chamber pumpdowns and backfills, and process
As might be expected, the imbalance in electric field strength reproducibility should be improved since the chamber hard-
near the electrodes increases with increasing electrode area ware need not undergo cyclical adsorption and desorption of
ratio. The influence of chamber pressure or rf power on this atmospheric gases.
electrode arrangement is similar to that with electrodes of There are numerous examples of plasma etching machines
equal area (Fig. 2). Wafers to be etched are in contact with with approximately equal electrode areas. In the so-called
the smaller electrode where the high electric fields promote Reinberg radial flow reactors 3 the electrodes are comprised
ion bombardment induced anisotropic etching mechanisms. of two large horizontal circular electrodes with a vacuum
An example of commercial equipment which exploits the pumping port in the center of the lower electrode. The wa-
unequal electrode geometry is the so-called "hexode" con- fers are loaded onto this electrode, face-up, in concentric
figuration. The primary manufacturer of this type of ma- arrays. When operated at high pressures of a few hundred
chinery has been Applied Materials. 2 Here the smaller elec- millitorr or more and at reasonably low power densities, on
trode is a right hexagonal cylinder to which the wafers are the order of 100mW/ cm 2 , the dc bias voltages are low and
clamped. A cylindrical metal bell jar surrounds the hexagon- the etching tends to be isotropic or partially isotropic.
al electrode and is connected to the grounded output of the rf To achieve the higher electric fields necessary for aniso-
power supply. Spacing between the electrodes is more than 5 tropic etching, several techniques are commonly used. The
in., resulting in an effective electrode area ratio greater than simplest involves process modification. As seen in Fig. 2, the
10. This electrode area ratio is further increased by covering dc bias voltage increases with higher rf power and lower
the smaller electrode with an insulating material, leaving pressure. Another technique is to cover the electrode with an
circular openings to expose the wafers to the discharge. insulating material such as Teflon or quartz, leaving open-

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 4, No.3, May/Jun 1986

1802 H. Y. Kumagai: Design of plasma etching 1802

ings through which the wafers are exposed to the plasma. By approximately equal area. The Reinberg radial flow reactor
covering the electrode with a thick layer of dielectric materi- and the Applied Materials model 3300 machines are two
al, the effective electrode area is reduced to that of the wa- well known examples of this reactor geometry. These ma-
fers, which are in direct contact with the electrode. This im- chines are usually operated as air-to-air batch systems with
balance in electrode area results in an increase in the electric maximum batch sizes of about twenty-five 100 mm wafers,
field directed toward the wafers and a tendency toward more over which reasonably uniform deposits can be achieved.
anisotropic etching is promoted. For convenience in loading, the wafers are generally loaded
In cassette loaded single wafer machines, in which one face-up onto the lower electrode. Since most plasma deposi-
wafer is etched at a time, the effective electrode areas tend to tion processes are carried out at temperatures in the 200-
be almost equal. To achieve economical production rates in 400 ·C range, the wafer carrying electrode must be heated.
these machines, the etch rates must be high, on the order of The most common method is to clamp electrical resistance
5000 A/min or greater. High etch rates require high rf power heaters directly to the electrode.
densities of 1 W /cm 2 or more. In such machines, provisions The introduction of the "tube type" or "hot wall" plasma
must be provided for efficient wafer cooling to prevent exces- deposition reactor in the late 1970s represented a significant
sive photoresist degradation in the etching process. Because change in this technology. 4 The electrodes consist of an ar-
of the high electric fields resulting from these high power ray of parallel rectangular plates. Typical plate dimensions
etching processes, the etching tends to anisotropic. for 100 mm wafers are 4.2 X 36 X 0.12 in. thick. The array of
Most plasma etching processes are carried out at or near 9-11 plates is assembled so that alternate plates are electri-
room temperature. To compensate for the heat dissipated in cally connected in common and the two sets of plates are
the process, it is usually necessary to provide some means to directly connected to the rf power supply. The plates are

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cool the chamber hardware. However, it is not enough to oriented vertically on edge, and wafers are held against them
simply cool the electrodes and major surfaces with a con- by small tabs. Except for the two outer plates of the array,
stant flow of cooling water. In batch systems which are regu- wafers are mounted on both surfaces of each plate.
larly exposed to the atmosphere, it is important to prevent Although any electrically conductive material could, in
the condensation of atmospheric water vapor on the internal principle, be used for electrode plates, graphite is almost uni-
chamber hardware. It is well recognized that water vapor versally used. Its low density, ease of machining, and ability
inhibits many etching processes and tends to promote poly- to withstand high temperatures without warping make it an
mer formation. attractive material for this application. In addition, it is
Therefore, some means must be provided to elevate the chemically inert to many water based solutions. Deposits of
temperature of the chamber hardware before the chamber is materials like silicon nitride or silicon oxide can be stripped
opened. This elevated temperature is maintained as long as from the electrode arrays by immersion in an aqueous solu-
the chamber is open and is an aid in preventing excessive tion containing hydrofluoric acid. The properties of graphite
adsorption of water vapor on the interior chamber surfaces. thus make it uniquely well suited for this application.
After a new batch of wafers is loaded and the chamber reeva- Batch sizes of more than one hundred 100 mm wafers are
cuated, the temperature can be lowered to etching condi- now possible with good uniformity. The reactor chamber is
tions. As a procedure, many process engineers prefer to pre- in the form of a cylindrical quartz furnace tube with concen-
cede the actual etching process with a "clean up" discharge tric electrical resistance heaters. Uniform temperatures in-
using a nonetching gas such as argon or oxygen or mixtures side the tube can be maintained over a large temperature
of these. This preetch discharge serves to remove organic range. The primary manufacturers of this equipment are Pa-
surface residues from the wafers as well as accelerate the cific Western SystemsS and ASM America. 6 The large batch
removal of atmospheric components, primarily adsorbed sizes make these machines economical to operate. Film qual-
water vapor, from the chamber hardware. ity of silicon nitride and silicon oxide, the most widely used
During the actual etching operation, it is often found ad- materials, is adequate for many applications in device manu-
vantageous to maintain the temperature of the wafers at a facturing.
higher temperature than that of the opposing electrode sur-
face. Under these conditions the condensation, or rather ad-
sorption, of polymer forming components is directed toward IV. POWER SUPPLIES
the cooler electrode where they will not interfere with the
rfpower supplies for plasma etching systems are typically
etching process. This can be especially useful in processes
operated at a frequency of 13.56 MHz, continuous wave out-
where either the etching reactants or reaction products in-
put. Operation at this frequency allows plasma discharges to
clude freons or other gases rich in carbon and hydrogen. In
be easily ignited and sustained over a wide range of pres-
systems equipped with vacuum load locks, adsorption of at-
sures. Compared to lower frequencies, say 50 kHz, the 13.56
mospheric contaminants is avoided but independent cooling
MHz plasmas require less power for equivalent etch rates.
of the electrodes is still useful for inhibiting polymer forma-
This implies that damage to sensitive devices should be less
tion.
of a problem with higher frequency discharges.
In plasma deposition, the earlier large parallel plate sys-
III. CHAMBER DESIGN FOR PLASMA DEPOSITION tems were equipped with continuous wave power supplies
Initially, the most widely used commercial plasma deposi- with output frequencies of either 13.56 MHz or relatively
tion machines used large horizontal parallel electrodes of low frequencies in the range of 30 to 300 kHz. The properties

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 4, No.3, May/Jun 1986

1803 H. Y. Kumagai: Design of plasma etching 1803

of plasma deposited silicon nitride films, and probably other a requirement for greater pumping speed. In the intermedi-
materials, are influenced by the discharge frequency. ate pressure range, this function is best provided by roots
Koyama 7 has reported on the variation of film stress of sili- type blowers which are well known for their sturdiness and
con nitride films as a function of frequency. The stress is reliability. If it is essential that the chamber be pumped to
compressive and almost independent of frequency between hard vacuum levels of 10- 5 Torr or lower, the usual practice
50 and 1 MHz. A large change occurs between 1 and 5 MHz is to attach a high speed pump directly to the process
with the stress changing from compressive to tensile, and chamber. In most cases, a turbomolecular pump is adequate.
little change is observed between 5 and 13.56 MHz. For this For corrosive gases, a small but continuous flushing of an
application, therefore, power supplies operating at 1 MHz or inert gas around the bearings greatly extends pump life. The
less can be considered as "low frequency" and those at 5 pump life can be further extended by maintaining the fore-
MHz and above as "high frequency." line at as Iowa pressure as can be practically attained. The
In the hot wall tube type reactors it is not possible to ignite usual practice in this case is to interpose a roots blower
a uniform plasma along the long graphite electrode array between the turbomolecular pump and the mechanical
with continuous wave rf excitation. These machines require pump. Some systems are equipped with cryogenic pumps or
a pulsed rfpower source. Briefly, the rfpower is supplied in diffusion pumps. However, they appear to offer few advan-
pulses on the order of a millisecond long. Pulse repetition tages and many disadvantages in reliability and potential
rates range from about 100-1000 times per s. The pulse duty safety hazards compared to turbomolecular pumps. For a
cycle is usually about 20% or less. If the duty cycle exceeds more comprehensive discussion of vacuum system designs,
30%, problems of nonuniform plasmas develop as with con- the reader is referred to the work of Duval 8 and O'Hanlon. 9
tinuous wave rf excitation. Within the pulse, the frequency

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range of present commercial systems is about 50 to 500 kHz. VI. GAS MANIFOLD DESIGNS
In accordance with Koyama's work, there appears to be lit- The configuration of gas manifolds for plasma processing
tle influence on most commonly measured film properties machinery is not unlike manifolds for other processes using
over this frequency range. The published literature is lack- gas phase reactants. For example, LPCVD systems and plas-
ing, however, on the influence of rffrequency on more subtle ma deposition systems use similar reactants for the deposi-
effects such as particulate formation or film adhesion. tion of materials like polysilicon and silicon nitride. In all
such processes, there are stringent requirements to provide
precisely metered flow rates of one or several reactants into
the process chamber.
V. VACUUM SYSTEM DESIGN With the present availability of a variety of good mass flow
In almost all plasma machines, the final vacuum pumping controllers, the task of maintaining selected levels of reac-
stage is handled by a mechanical pump. A rotary vane pump tant flow rates has been considerably simplified. However,
is adequate for most processes. The two stage direct drive when the gases react spontaneously with oxygen to form
pumps are preferred because of their compact size and effec- solid deposits, like silane, or are corrosive, like chlorine, the
tive isolation between the inlet and outlet ports. For the problems of gas manifold designs are more difficult. As an
tougher applications, where pump corrosion or particulates example, the reactants for the deposition of plasma silicon
are troublesome, the more robust rotary piston pumps are nitride are ammonia and silane. Figure 4 shows a typical
recommended. manifold for these gases. In this example, the argon can be
With many processes, it is important to supply an inert used either as a diluent or carrier gas for the reactants or as a
diluent gas such as nitrogen or argon into the ballast port of purge gas. When the process is underway, valves A, B, and E
the mechanical pump. This ballast gas enters the pumping are open and the ammonia and silane streams merge at point
cavity just before the final compression stage. It serves to D. In the usual construction of manifolds, point D is only a
dilute the mixture of reactant gases that are being pumped few inches from both the ammonia and silane flow control-
before they are expelled into the scrubber or other reactant lers. This allows ammonia to diffuse into the silane flow con-
disposal facilities. It can help to prevent problems such as troller and silane to diffuse into the ammonia flow con-
silane explosions or oxygen explosions inside the pump. This troller. In the ideal case, this does not pose a problem
can be important in some of the modem silicon nitride depo- because these two materials do not react at room tempera-
sition recipes which result in large volumes of unreacted si- ture. What occurs in practice, however, is that silane reacts
lane being pumped. A vacuum leak could allow explosive with unintentional sources of impurities, primarily oxygen,
silane-air mixtures inside the pump if the ballast gas is not inside the ammonia flow controller and deposits of silicon
used. Large volumes of inert gas can be metered into the dioxide powder are formed, causing eventual malfunction-
ballast port in order to achieve the proper dilution levels. As ing of this flow controller. One solution to this problem is to
a rule of thumb, a two stage pump can handle up to 1 atm 1/ install a separate line for the silane up to the plasma reactor
min of ballast gas for each cubic foot per minute of its rated and provide some means to aid reactant mixing inside the
pumping speed. To reduce the pumping load, the ballast gas chamber.
supply should be active only when reactants are being
pumped. VII. DISCUSSION
In some processes, the need for low operating pressures or It has been the intent of this paper to present a broad
high flow rates of reactants, including carrier gases, dictates outline of design principles for the construction of plasma

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 4, No.3, May/Jun 1986

1804 H. Y. Kumagai: Design of plasma etching 1804

One of the primary concerns in plasma deposition has

SILANE been particulate density in deposited films. Therefore, any
new machinery design capable of producing films of lower
PLASMA particle density must be regarded as technologically ad-
AMMONIA REACTOR
vanced. Up to this time, the hot wall tube type reactors offer
the most economical production because of their large batch
ARGON
size. In addition, particle densities in films produced in these
machines are among the lowest in air-to-air batch systems.
It is reasonable to expect that some reduction in particu-
o AIR OPERATED VALVE
lates would result from load locked reaction chambers.
(59
Whether such improvements can be economically imple-
(59 HAND VALVE mented in tube type reactors is a yet unanswered question. In
the deposition of contamination sensitive materials like
c=J MASS FLOW CONTROLLER
amorphous silicon, load locked machines may be necessary
to obtain good process control. In the future it is quite likely
that applications with the most critical requirements for film
FIG. 4. Diagram of typical reactant gas supply manifold. quality will best be satisfied with load locked reaction cham-
bers. For less demanding applications such as final encapsu-
lent films, the present batch machines may prove to be the
most economic. In any event, it is a certainty that plasma

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deposition and plasma etching machines in the semiconduc-
tor industry. Detailed information such as electrode dimen- deposition will continue to be an active area for process de-
sions and machining tolerances are not discussed. Moreover, velopment and new machinery designs.
the designs of machinery presently available on the commer-
cial market have been emphasized. It may be useful, how-
ever, to speculate on the types of machinery that are likely to
be developed in order to further improve the technology and
provide more economic manufacturing operations.
In plasma etching, the most troublesome problems in pro-
cessing reproducibility seem to be reduced by isolating the 'J. W. Coburn, "Plasma Etching and Reactive Ion Etching," American
reaction chamber with vacuum load locks. As mentioned Vacuum Society Monograph Series (American Institute of Physics, New
earlier, some machines are already equipped with this fea- York, 1982).
ture. Etching uniformity and end point detection are best 2Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, California 95051.
3 A. R. Reinberg, in Proceedings of the Electrochemical Society Spring
executed on the so-called single wafer machines. Thus it Meeting, 1974, Vo!' 74-1, No.6.
might appear that the most technologically advanced ma- 4R. S. Rosier and O. M. Engle, Solid State Techno!. 24, 172 (1981).
chines would be some kind of load locked single wafer sys- 'Pacific Western Systems, Inc., Mountain View, California 94041.
tem. In many applications, however, the production eco- 6 ASM America, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona 85040.

nomics of single wafer machines has been poor in 7K. Koyama, K. Takasaki, M. Maeda, and M. Takagi, presented at the
Electrochemical Society Fall Meeting, 1981.
comparison to multiple wafer machines. A compromise ap- sp. Duval, Solid State Techno!. 25 (8), 110 (1982); J. Vac. Sci. Techno!. A
proach might combine the features of load locks, modest 1,233 (1983).
batch size, and multiple electrodes with individual wafer end 9J. F. O'Hanlon, Solid State Techno!. 24 (10), 86 (1981); J. Vac. Sci.
point monitors. A recent innovation that could influence fu- Techno!. A I, 228 (1983).
ture designs is magnetically enhanced etching, where high lOR. Okano, T. Yamazaki, and Y. Horike, Solid State Techno!. 25 (4), 166
(1982).
etch rates have been achieved because of a more favorable "D. C. Hinson, Lin I, W. H. Class, and S. Hurwitt, Semicond. Int. 6 (10),
etch rate/power ratio compared to conventional meth- 103 (1983).
ods. 10-12 12E. R. Lory, Solid State Techno!. 27 (11), 117 (1984).

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 4, No.3, May/Jun 1986