Excimer laser patterning of TiN film from metal sacrificial layers

In this work, the relative performance of patterning TiN film from metal sacrificial layers using a 248nm excimer laser is presented. Patterning performance was determined by investigating etching behaviour in terms of edge quality, film delamination and layer selectivity. Using <100> silicon as a substrate, TiN was arc deposited onto sputtered Cr and Cu sacrificial layers and silicon in a partially Filtered Arc Deposition (FAD) system at 150degreesC. The TiN films were directly patterned into matrixes of fluence verses number of shots. The results show excellent patterning of TiN from Cr sacrificial layers in terms of pattern quality and film selectivity. The TiN ablated from a Cu sacrificial layer produced poor patterning and no layer selectivity. The experimental results are presented and discussed in relation to the explosion mechanism of ablation.