Plasma vacuum ultraviolet emission in a high density etcher

This work investigates the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emission and its impact on SiO/sub 2/ conductivity in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) etcher. Absolute measurements of plasma VUV emission at processing pressures between 0.5 mtorr and 5 mtorr and microwave powers between 700 W and 1300 W show levels of irradiance at the wafer position of the order of tenths of mW/cm/sup 2/ and integrated photon fluxes in the 10/sup 14/ photons/cm/sup 2/s range. In-situ measurements of SiO/sub 2/ conductivity under direct exposure to the plasma scale with the intensity of the VUV radiation. The measured level of VUV emission from various feed gases is sufficient to induce radiation damage in typical MOS devices in the form of flatband voltage shift and inversion of lightly doped substrates.