Comparison of Etching Tools for Resist Pattern Transfer

摘要

Several etching tools were evaluated for the oxygen-based plasma pattern transferstep in surface imaging and multilayer resist processes. These tools include a conventional parallel-plate reactive ion etcher, a magnetically enhanced reactive ion etcher, an electron cyclotron resonance reactor, and a Helicon (rf helical resonator) reactor. The performance of each tool was examined with respect to etch rate, etch profile, selectivity between the imaging layer and the pattern transfer layer, etch uniformity, etching residue, linewidth uniformity and process latitude.