Impact of RF oxygen plasma on thermal oxide etch-rate

摘要

RF oxygen plasma treatment significatively affects the thermal SiO_2 etch rate both by physical damage of the surface and, in case of ion implanted samples, by partial recovery of the damage. Both surface damage depth and ion implantation recovery increase with the RF power used for plasma generation. In case of low RF power the poor process uniformity causes an anomalous behaviour, visible both from etch rate and surface charging measurements.