Full Surface Ion Beam Etching on 200 mm Wafers

The scia Mill 200 is designed for structuring of complex multilayers of various materials. For an exact process control different end point detection systems can be equipped. With its fully reactive gas compatibility the system enables reactive etching processes with enhanced selectivity and rate. The flexible design of the scia Mill 200 allows to adapt it as single substrate version as well as in high volume production cluster layout with up to three process chambers and two cassette load locks.

Features & Benefits

Etching angle adjustment with tiltable and rotatable substrate holder
Excellent uniformity without shaper
Enhanced selectivity and rate with reactive gases
Process control with exact SIMS based or optical end point detection
Processing of wafers with photoresist masks due to good wafer cooling
Fully automatic cassette handling in variable cluster layouts including SECS/GEM communication

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Applications

Etching of a layer stack for a spintronic sensor using SIMS spectrometry, allows to determine the layer change boundaries, thereby changing points for angle and etch stops can precisely be defined. Left: Layer stack. Right: SIMS material detection.

Structuring of magnetic memory (MRAM) and sensors (IR, GMR, TMR)
Milling of metals in MEMS production (Au, Ru, Ta, …)
Milling of multilayers from diversified metal and dielectric materials
RIBE or CAIBE of compound semiconductors (GaAs, GaN, InP, …)
Production of 3-dimensional optoelectronic microstructures
Ion beam smoothing for reduction of microroughness
Pattern transfer for optical gratings

Application Notes

Surface Relief Gratings for AR- and MR-Devices
Magnetic Multilayers for tunnel-magneto-resistance (TMR) sensors
Manufacturing of ultra-thin Lithium Tantalate for IR Sensors
Reverse Engineering of IC chip devices

Principle

Circular ion beam source etches full substrate area under a defined angle with inert or reactive gases

Technologies

Ion Beam Etching (IBE) / Ion Beam Milling (IBM)
uses a collimated beam of inert gas ions for structuring or material removal.

Reactive Ion Beam Etching (RIBE)
introduces reactive gas into the ion beam source for reactive etching of the surface.

Chemically Assisted Ion Beam Etching (CAIBE)
uses reactive gas independent of the ion beam for reactive etching of the surface.

Detailed Information

Technical Data

Substrate size (up to)	200 mm dia.
Substrate holder	Water-cooled, helium backside cooling contact, substrate rotation 5 to 20 rpm, tiltable in-situ from 0° to 170° in 0.1° steps
Ion beam source	350 mm circular RF source (RF350-e)
Neutralizer	RF plasma bridge neutralizer (N-RF)
Throughput	12 Wafer/h (100 nm SiO₂ on 200 mm wafer)
Base pressure	< 5 x 10^-7 mbar
System dimension (W x D x H)	3.20 m x 2.50 m x 2.50 m, for 3 chambers and cassette handling (without electrical racks and pumps)
Configurations	Single chamber, optional single substrate load lock or cassette handling, Cluster system with up to 3 process chambers and cassette handling, optional OES or SIMS based end point detection
Software interfaces	SECS II / GEM, OPC

Process Results

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Product Flyer scia Mill 200

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Typical removal rates	Cu: 60 nm/min, Pt: 35 nm/min, W:18 nm/min, SiO₂:20 nm/min (inert), SiO₂: 40 - 60 nm/min (reactive)
Uniformity variation	≤ 1 % (σ/mean)

Full Surface Ion Beam Etching on 200 mm Wafers

Features & Benefits

Applications

Principle

Detailed Information

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Reach out

Other Ion Beam Etching Systems

scia Mill 150

for full surface etching of
substrates up to 150 mm

scia Mill 300

for full surface etching of
wafers up to 300 mm

scia Trim 200

for precise surface correction
of wafers up to 200 mm

scia Mill 150

for full surface etching of substrates up to 150 mm

scia Mill 300

for full surface etching of wafers up to 300 mm

scia Trim 200

for precise surface correction of wafers up to 200 mm

for full surface etching of
substrates up to 150 mm

for full surface etching of
wafers up to 300 mm

for precise surface correction
of wafers up to 200 mm