Dry etching properties of TiO 2 thin film using inductively coupled plasma for resistive random access memory application

Abstract

In this work, we investigated to the etching characteristics of TiO 2 thin film and the selectivity using the inductively coupled plasma system. The etch rate and the selectivity were obtained with various gas mixing ratios. The maximum etch rate of TiO 2 thin film was 61.6 nm/min. The selectivity of TiO 2 to TiN, and TiO 2 to SiO 2 were obtained as 2.13 and 1.39, respectively. The etching process conditions are 400 W for RF power, -150 V for DC-bias voltage, 2 Pa for the process pressure, and 40°C for substrate temperature. The chemical states of the etched surfaces were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Its analysis showed that the etching mechanism was based on the physical and chemical pathways in the ion-assisted physical reaction. © 2012 KIEEME.