On the Control of Plasma Parameters and Active Species Kinetics in CF4 + O2 + Ar Gas Mixture by CF4/O2 and O2/Ar Mixing Ratios

The effects of both CF4/O-2 and Ar/O-2 mixing ratios in three-component CF4 + O-2 + Ar mixture on plasma parameters, densities and fluxes of active species determining the dry etching kinetics were analyzed. The investigation combined plasma diagnostics by Langmuir probes and zero-dimensional plasma modeling. It was found that the substitution of CF4 for O-2 at constant fraction of Ar in a feed gas produces the non-monotonic change in F atom density, as it was repeatedly reported for the binary CF4/O-2 gas mixtures. At the same time, the substitution of Ar for O-2 at constant fraction of CF4 results in the monotonic increase in F atom density toward more oxygenated plasmas. The natures of these phenomena as well as theirs possible impacts on the etching/polymerization kinetics were discussed in details.