LAUSR

As devices scale down, we need to employ higher ion energy in the plasma etching to meet the requirements for critical dimensions. As a result, physical damage can be more severe. Since hydrogen can penetrate deeply into silicon due to its low mass compared to other species, there is a possibility of electrical degradation by deeply penetrated hydrogen. In this study, we demonstrated hydrogen-induced damage from the plasma etching process. Permeated hydrogen from the plasma etching process increases the amount of interface and bulk defects with increasing bias power, resulting in electrical degradation. Improvement of the device performance was possible via process modification using a rapid thermal anneal (RTA) directly after the hydrogen-containing plasma etching process and the hydrogen-free etching process.