Impact of etcher chamber design on plasma induced device damage for advanced oxide etching

The effect of oxide etcher chamber design on plasma induced damage is investigated by antenna test structures associated with optical emission spectroscopy. It is found that the magnetically-enhanced RIE (MERIE) type etcher may have less plasma damage than inductive type etchers under certain conditions. The experimental data also suggests that the chamber design for a high density plasma etcher has a significant impact on the plasma induced damage and the damage level can be minimized by choosing a different etching chemistry. From the spectroscopic data, we also conclude that plasma induced UV radiation has an insignificant contribution compared to charging damage.