Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 56, 24012 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2011110205

Towards control of plasma-induced surface roughness: simultaneous to plasma etching deposition^*

Institute of Microelectronics, National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos’’, Athens, Greece

^a e-mail: gkok@imel.demokritos.gr

Received: 2 May 2011
Revised: 13 July 2011
Accepted: 2 August 2011
Published online: 28 October 2011

Abstract

The potential of simultaneous to etching deposition for surface roughness control is investigated with a stochastic modeling framework for morphology evolution in (2+1) d. It is predicted that ion-driven etching under simultaneous deposition of etch-inhibitors (e.g., impurities coming from the wafer surroundings, the reactor walls, or the plasma bulk) not only induces roughness formation with a linear dependence on time, but can also induce periodic dots on the surface. The surface roughness can be controlled by regulating the amount of etch-inhibitors.