THE IMPLICATION OF FLOW-RATE DEPENDENCIES IN PLASMA-ETCHING

The effect of gas flow rates in the etching of silicon materials in fluorocarbon gases has been studied. A utilization factor has been defined to describe the extent to which the reaction gas is converted to volatile products of the plasma etching process. The experimental evidence for the importance of a utilization factor in plasma etching is shown, and some of the surprisingly many ways in which flow rates influence the whole etching process are illustrated.