Study of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Temperature Based on Silicon Carbide Etching

Micromachines (Basel). 2023 May 2;14(5):992. doi: 10.3390/mi14050992.

Abstract

In order to further understand the excitation process of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and improve the etching efficiency of silicon carbide (SiC), the effect of temperature and atmospheric pressure on plasma etching of silicon carbide was investigated. Based on the infrared temperature measurement method, the temperature of the plasma reaction region was measured. The single factor method was used to study the effect of the working gas flow rate and the RF power on the plasma region temperature. Fixed-point processing of SiC wafers analyzes the effect of plasma region temperature on the etching rate. The experimental results showed that the plasma temperature increased with increasing Ar gas until it reached the maximum value at 15 slm and decreased with increasing flow rate; the plasma temperature increased with a CF4 flow rate from 0 to 45 sccm until the temperature stabilized when the flow rate reached 45 sccm. The higher the RF power, the higher the plasma region's temperature. The higher the plasma region temperature, the faster the etching rate and the more pronounced the effect on the non-linear effect of the removal function. Therefore, it can be determined that for ICP processing-based chemical reactions, the increase in plasma reaction region temperature leads to a faster SiC etching rate. By processing the dwell time in sections, the nonlinear effect caused by the heat accumulation on the component surface is effectively improved.

Keywords: plasma etching; plasma temperature; removal function; silicon carbide.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.