Spatial distributions of thin oxide charging in reactive ion etcher and MERIE etcher

Abstract

The spatial variation of the oxide charging across a wafer in a magnetically enhanced reactive ion etcher (MERIE) was investigated and compared with that in a reactive ion etcher (RIE). The polarity as well as the magnitude of the oxide charging current were determined by evaluating quasi-static CV curves for MOS capacitors. In a MERIE etcher with a static magnetic field, oxide charging is negative for about half of the wafer and positive for the other half of the wafer. A model is proposed to explain how lateral magnetic field affects the spatial distribution of charging across the wafer in a MERIE etcher.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>