Electroless Deposited Nickel Hard Mask For High Density Plasma Etching Applications

Ni electroless films were used as a material for hard mask during highdensity ICP plasma etching. The results have shown that under the plasma exposure strong hardening of the mask occurs and the rate of Ni film removal falls at least an order of magnitude as compared with its initial value. Therefore, very high selectivities for Si etching over Ni are obtained, allowing for very deep etching required for some MEMS applications. © The Electrochemical Society.141403411Yu, H.S., Luo, S.F., Wang, Y.-R., A comparative study on the crystallization behavior of electroless Ni-P and Ni-Cu-P deposits (2001) Surface and Coatings Technology, 148, pp. 143-148Park, Y.S., Kim, T.H., Lee, M.H., Kwon, S.C., Study on the effect of ultrasonic waves on the characteristics of electroless nickel deposits from an acid bath (2002) Surface and Coatings Technology, 153, pp. 245-251Bates, J., Why Use Electroless Nickel Today? (2000) Plating & Surface Finishing, pp. 14-16Gawrilov, G.G., (1979) Chemical (electroless) Nickel-plating, , Portcullis Press Ltd, Great BritainKobayashi, T., Ishibashi, J., Mononobe, S., Ohtsu, M., Honma, H., Electroless Nickel Plating for Nanofabrication in Optics (2000) Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 147, pp. 1046-1049Dubin, V.M., Electroless Ni-P Deposition on Silicon with Pd Activation (1992) J. Electrochem. Soc, 139, pp. 1289-1294Oraon, B., Majumdar, G., Ghosh, B., Improving hardness of electroless Ni-B coatings using optimized deposition conditions and annealing (2007) Materials and DesignPark, J.H., Lee, N.-E., Park, J.S., Lee, J., Park, H.D., Deep dry etching of borosilicate glass using SF6 and SF6/Ar inductively coupled plasmas (2005) Microelectronic Engineering, 82 (2), pp. 119-128Franssila, S., Kiihamäki, J., Karttunen, J., Etching through silicon wafer in inductively coupled plasma (2000) Microsystem Technologies, 6, pp. 141-144Karmalkar, S., Sridhar, D., Banerjee, J., A Novel Activation Process for Autocatalytic Electroless Deposition on Silicon Substrates (1997) J. Electrochem. Soc, 144, pp. 1696-1698Monteiro, M.J.R., Kostryukov, A., Daltrini, A.M., Moshkalyov, S.A., Machida, M., Besseler, E., Inductively Coupled Plasma Test Reactor Development and Plasma Measurements (2005) Proceedings, pp. 226-234. , Electrochemical Society, ppQuévy, E., Parvais, B., Raskin, J.P., Buchaillot, L., Flandre, D., Collard, D., A modified Bosch-type process for precise surface micromachining of polysilicon (2002) J. Micromech. Microeng, 12, pp. 328-33