Characteristics of neutral beam generated by reflection on a planar-type reflector and its etching properties

In the fabrication of nano-scale silicon-based devices, any process-related damage such as electrical charging and surface modification remaining during the processing may cause serious problems due to the size limitation of the devices. Therefore, etching processes with no or negligible damage are required. In this study, a low-angle forward reflected neutral beam apparatus with a planar-type reflector attached to the ion source has been used and its effect on the formation of neutral beam and the characteristics of the neutral beam flux have been investigated. The results showed that most of the ions extracted from the ion source were neutralized and formed a neutral beam by the low-angle reflection from the planar-type reflector, and when Si and SiO2 were etched with the reactive radical beams generated with SF6, high etch rates and vertical etch profiles could be obtained with the low-angle forward-reflection technique. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.