Reactive ion etching of Pt/PZT/Pt ferroelectric thin film capacitors in high density DECR plasma

One of the key processing issues involved in the integration of Pt/PZT/Pt ferroelectric capacitors on silicon-based integrated circuits is dry etching of the ceramic film and associated electrodes. In this work, using a high density DECR plasma and in a CF4/Cl-2 or CF2Cl2 chemistries, we have evaluated the effects of temperature, microwave and RF power on Pt and PZT etch rates. As each component of the PZT film can be expected to form compounds with differents volatilities, we mainly focused our work on the use of a mass spectrometry technique to monitor, in different fluorine, chlorine and bromine chemistries, the volatile species generated during dry etching.