Dry Etching of Al2O3 Thin Film by Cl2/Ar Plasma

In this study, adaptively coupled plasma (ACP) source was used for dry etching of $Al_2O_3$ thin film. During the etching process, the wafer surface temperature is an important parameter to influent the etching characteristics. Therefore, the experiments were carried out in ACP to measuring the etch rate, the selectivities of $Al_2O_3$ thin film to mask materials and the etch profile as functions of $Cl_2$/Ar gas ratio and substrate temperature. The highest etch rate of $Al_2O_3$ was 65.4 nm/min at 75% of $Cl_2/(Cl_2+Ar)$ gas mixing ratio. The etched profile was characterized using field effect scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The chemical states of $Al_2O_3$ thin film surfaces were investigated with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).