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New Dry-Etch Chemistries for III-V Semiconductors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

S. J. Pearton
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
U. K. Chakrabarti
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
F. Ren
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
C. R. Abernathy
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
A. Katz
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
W. S. Hobson
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974
C. Constantine
Affiliation:
Plasma Therm IP, St. Petersburg, FL
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Abstract

For some dry etching applications in III-V semiconductors, such as via hole formation in InP substrates, the currently used plasma chemistries have etch rates that are up to a factor of 30 too slow. We report on the development of 3 new classes of discharge chemistries, namely C12/CH4 /H2/Ar at 150°C (yielding InP etch rates of >1 μm · min−1 at 1 mTorr and –80V dc), HBr/H2 for selective etching of InGaAs over AlInAs, and iodine-based plasmas (HI/H2, CH3 I/H2) that offer rapid anisotropic etching of all III-V materials at room temperature. In all cases, Electron Cyclotron Resonance sources (either multipolar or magnetic mirror) with additional rf biasing of the sample position are utilized to obtain low damage pattern transfer processes that generally use metal contacts on device structures as self-aligned etch masks. The temperature dependence of etch rates with these new chemistries display non-Arrhenius behavior in the range 50-250°C and a detailed study of the phenomenon are reported. Electrical, optical and chemical analysis of the etched surfaces show that it is possible to achieve essentially damage-free pattern transfer.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

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