Impact of reactor- and transistor-type on electron shading effects

Electron shading (ES) effects, which lead to plasma process-induced damage in etching processes, were studied as a function of reactor- and transistor-type. It was found that the classical ES effect, which occurs under the latent antenna regime, dominates for the current high-density plasma reactors, independent of the used transistor-type. However, for less dense plasma reactors, the so-called extended ES effect, which occurs during the overetch regime, can overrule the classical ES effect depending on the transistor-type.