| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T24: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
The American Ceramic Society Journal Awards Symposium
|
| Presentation Title |
Correlative Characterization of Plasma Etching Resistance of Various Aluminum Garnets |
| Author(s) |
Christian Stern, Christian Schwab, Moritz Kindelmann, Mark Stamminger, Inhee Park, Florian Hausen, Martin Finsterbusch, Martin Bram, Olivier Guillon |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Christian Stern |
| Abstract Scope |
Plasma etching is a vital step in semiconductor processing, requiring stringent cleanliness and reproducibility to achieve nanometer-sized transistors. As plasma parameters become more aggressive, YAG (Y3Al5O12) outperforms traditional materials in this application. This study employed reactive spark plasma sintering (SPS) to synthesize highly dense YAG ceramics. Additionally, yttrium was replaced with heavier lanthanoids (Er, Lu) to investigate the role of the A-site cation on the erosion behavior. The materials were exposed to fluorine-based etching plasmas of different corrosiveness. Successive characterization uncovered that less aggressive parameters did not trigger physical erosion, but induced a reaction layer. For in-depth analysis, a correlative method coupling ToF-SIMS and STEM-EDS was developed and characteristics of the chemical gradient were derived. Aggressive plasma parameters led to physical erosion that was characterized by profilometry. The study reveals that the chemical gradient under weak etching conditions cannot be used to predict the etch performance under more aggressive parameters. |