Publications
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HF etching mechanism of heavily doped Si. KU Leuven
In solid-state device processing, cleaning of the substrates has always attracted a lot of interest, so also the cleaning of Si and the removal of SiO2 by HF solutions. HF is a fast etcher of SiO2 , but unfortunately also a slow etcher of Si. Since with evolving technology, the transistor gate length becomes narrower and the dopant implantation in the source/drain area shallower, the substrate and dopant loss during cleaning of heavily doped ...
Electrochemical and analytical study of the Si etching mechanism in HF KU Leuven
In this work a methodology and metrology for the Si substrate loss characterization during cleaning and etching of Si semiconductor substrate has been developed. Using this methodology, the substrate loss in different HF based cleaning solutions can be investigated, both in situ and ex situ. The etching mechanism in different HF mixtures is studied, where the effect of dissolved O2, illumination, free F-ions and additives can be explored. Etch ...
Study of the etching mechanism of heavily doped Si in HF KU Leuven
Following Moore's scaling law, the transistor source and drain area become shallower and higher doped regions. As a consequence the limitations of substrate and dopant loss during cleaning become more stringent. For a better understanding, highly B, As and P doped blanket substrates, either prepared by ion implantation or by EPI growth, are studied. Substrate and dopant loss as a function of time and different HF etching conditions is monitored ...
Assessing neutral transport mechanisms in aspect ratio dependent etching by means of experiments and multiscale plasma modeling University of Antwerp
Since the onset of pattern transfer technologies for chip manufacturing, various strategies have been developed to circumvent or overcome aspect ratio dependent etching (ARDE). These methods have, however, their own limitations in terms of etch non-idealities, throughput or costs. Moreover, they have mainly been optimized for individual in-device features and die-scale patterns, while occasionally ending up with poor patterning of metrology ...
Mechanisms for plasma cryogenic etching of porous materials University of Antwerp
Porous materials are commonly used in microelectronics, as they can meet the demand for continuously shrinking electronic feature dimensions. However, they are facing severe challenges in plasma etching, due to plasma induced damage. In this paper, we present both the plasma characteristics and surface processing during the etching of porous materials. We explain how the damage occurs in the porous material during plasma etching for a wide range ...
Nanoscale mechanisms of CNT growth and etching in plasma environment University of Antwerp
Plasma-enhanced chemical deposition (PECVD) of carbon nanotubes has already been shown to allow chirality control to some extent. In PECVD, however, etching may occur simultaneously with the growth, and the occurrence of intermediate processes further significantly complicates the growth process. We here employ a computational approach with experimental support to study the plasma-based formation of Ni nanoclusters, Ni-catalyzed CNT growth and ...
Mechanisms of elementary hydrogen ion-surface interactions during multilayer graphene etching at high surface temperature as a function of flux University of Antwerp
In order to optimize the plasma-synthesis and modification process of carbon nanomaterials for applications such as nanoelectronics and energy storage, a deeper understanding of fundamental hydrogen-graphite/graphene interactions is required. Atomistic simulations by Molecular Dynamics have proven to be indispensable to illuminate these phenomena. However, severe time-scale limitations restrict them to very fast processes such as reflection, ...
Effect of Zn on the grain boundary precipitates and resulting alkaline etching of recycled Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloys Vrije Universiteit Brussel Ghent University
The Zinc level in many 6000 Al alloys (Al-Mg-Si-type) was set to a maximum of 0.03 wt% as common industrial practice. Concentrations above 0.03 wt% can modify the alkaline etching mechanism causing the surface to go from a desired smooth look associated with a grain boundary attack (GBA), into an undesired speckled appearance due to preferential grain etching (PGE), visible after anodizing. This significantly limits the ambition of reducing the ...