Structuring of Complex Multilayers on 300 mm Wafers
The scia Mill 300 is designed for ion beam etching of various substrate materials with up to 300 mm dia. Different end point detection systems allow accurate process control, and the system's full reactive gas compatibility enables reactive etch processes with improved selectivity and rate. Due to the flexible design of the scia Mill 300, the system can be used both for high-volume production with cassette loading as well as for small scale production with a single substrate load-lock.
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
Applications
Reactive ion beam etching of surface relief gratings as optical couplers for Augmented Reality (AR). Left: Ion beam etching under
different angles of incidence. Right: Etched quartz grating from principle and SEM result.
- 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.
Technical Data
Substrate size (up to) | 300 mm dia. |
Substrate holder | Water-cooled, helium backside cooling contact, substrate rotation 1 to 20 rpm, tiltable in-situ from 0° to 170° in 0.1° steps |
Ion beam source | 450 mm circular RF source (RF450-e) |
Neutralizer | RF plasma bridge neutralizer (N-RF) |
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 | ≤ 2 % (σ/mean) |
Throughput | 12 Wafer/h (100 nm SiO2 removal) |
Base pressure | < 5 x 10-7 mbar |
System dimension (W x D x H) | 2.70 m x 1.50 m x 2.00 m, for single chamber with single substrate load-lock (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 |
Other Ion Beam Etching Systems
scia Mill 150
for full surface etching of
substrates up to 150 mm
scia Mill 200
for full surface etching of
wafers up to 200 mm
