Flow Field Effects in Segmented Dielectric Window Inductively Coupled Plasma

To improve the performance of semiconductor devices, the chip size is reduced, the structure is 3D stereoscopic, and a process uniformity is required on a large area wafer of 300mm. Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Etching (PE-ALE) is a popular etch process technology that meets these requirements. Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) with low ion bombardment energy and high plasma density is suitable as a plasma source for PEALE. However, due to the material limitations of the dielectric window at the top of ICP chamber, a gas injection system such as spraying onto the wafer cannot be used, and the gas flow field is difficult to control. To compensate for these problems, a Segmented Dielectric Window ICP (SDW-ICP) has been studied. In this study, we investigated how the gas flow field created by the shower-head-type gas injection hole array of SDW-ICP differs from the conventional ICP and how it affects the plasma properties.