COMPARISON OF ETCHING TOOLS FOR RESIST PATTERN TRANSFER

Several etching tools are evaluated for the oxygen-based plasma patter n transfer step in surface imaging and multilayer resist processes. Th ese tools include a conventional parallel-plate reactive ion etcher, a magnetically enhanced reactive ion etcher, an electron cyclotron reso nance reactor, and an rf helical resonator (Helicon) reactor. The perf ormance of each tool is examined with respect to etch rate, etch profi le, selectivity between the imaging layer and the pattern transfer lay er, etch uniformity, etching residue, linewidth uniformity, and proces s latitude.