Planar inductively coupled BCl3 plasma etching of III-V semiconductors

Both Ga-based (GaAs, AlGaAs) and In-based (InGaP, InP, InAs, and InGaAsP) compound semiconductors were etched in a planar inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor in pure BCl3. The Ga-based materials etched at significantly higher rates, as expected from the higher volatilities of their trichloride...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Electrochemical Society 2004, Vol.151 (5), p.G343-G346
Main Authors: LIM, W. T, BAEK, I. K, LEE, J. W, JEON, M. H, PARK, W. W, CHO, G. S, PEARTON, S. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science
rheology
Exact sciences and technology
Materials science
Physics
Surface treatments
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Summary:Both Ga-based (GaAs, AlGaAs) and In-based (InGaP, InP, InAs, and InGaAsP) compound semiconductors were etched in a planar inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor in pure BCl3. The Ga-based materials etched at significantly higher rates, as expected from the higher volatilities of their trichloride etch products relative to InC13. In contrast to the more common cylindrical geometry ICP sources, the dc self-bias which controls ion energy is not strongly dependent on source power up to ~400 W while etch rates increase rapidly over this power range. The source tunes easily even at very low powers ( < 100 W) but operates inefficiently above ~10 mTorr, with a marked decrease in both emission intensity from the discharge and in resulting etch rates of the compound semiconductors. The etched surfaces of both AlGaAs and GaAs have comparable root-mean-square roughness and similar stoichiometry to the unetched control samples, while the surfaces of In-based materials are degraded by the BCl3 etching.
ISSN:0013-4651
1945-7111
DOI:10.1149/1.1690292