The Role of Oxygen on Anisotropy in Chromium Oxide Hard Mask Etching for Sub-Micron Fabrication

Chromium and its oxides have been playing a vital role in the fabrication of micro- and nano-scale structures in numerous applications for several decades. Controllable, robust and anisotropically dry-etched hard masks and their optimal etch recipes are required in state-of-the-art device fabrication techniques. In terms of manufacturability and repeatability, a mechanistic understanding of the plasma-etching process of chromium oxide (Cr
₂
O
₃
) is necessary for its adoption as a hard mask. We present a systematic investigation of plasma etching of chromium oxide films via an inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) system in nanoscale. The effects of plasma composition, ICP source power and HF platen power on the etch rate, sidewall profile, surface morphology, and dc-bias have been methodically investigated. We paid particular attention to studying how oxygen content can be used to control the etch profile of nano trenches using chlorine/oxygen gas mixtures, including extremes of very low and very high oxygen content. It was found that chromium oxide etch mechanisms are dependent strongly on the oxygen level. We achieved desirable vertical sidewalls with reasonable etch rates when the oxygen content is in the range 10-40% in the plasma. Oxygen content below 10% resulted in positively tapered etch profiles with low etch rates. On the other hand, bowl-like etch profiles with undercut formation was observed at high oxygen content above 40%, caused by re-emission of the reactive species at this regime. As a hard mask material, patterning Cr
₂
O
₃
films compared to Cr metal is advantageous in terms of etch uniformity and reproducibility. Contrary to Cr, Cr
₂
O
₃
is not as sensitive to chamber wall conditions.