SiO2 and Si etching in a CF4/O2/Ar plasma has been carried out in an electron cyclotron resonance etcher over a wide range of conditions. The etch rate has been compared with the ion energy flux to the wafer surface, JiEi, and the atomic fluorine density in the gas phase, nF. It is found that the etch rate can be divided into two regimes by a critical value of nF/(JiEi), the ratio of the atomic fluorine density to the ion energy flux. The critical value can be determined from a contour plot of the etch rate as a function of the ion energy flux and the atomic fluorine density. The critical value of nF/(JiEi) for Si is higher than that for SiO2. For nF/(JiEi) higher than the critical value, the SiO2 etch rate linearly increases with the ion energy flux, and the Si etch rate shows a nonlinear increase with the ion energy flux. For nF/(JiEi) lower than the critical value, both SiO2 and Si etch rates linearly increase with the atomic fluorine density.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.578540