Comparison of line edge roughness and profile angles of chemical vapor deposited amorphous carbon etched in O2/N2/Ar and H2/N2/Ar inductively coupled plasmas

In this study, we compared the line edge roughnesses (LER) and profile angles of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) amorphous carbon (a-C) patterns etched in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etcher produced by varying process parameters such as the N2 gas flow ratio, Q (N2), and dc self-bias voltage (Vdc) in O2/N2/Ar and H2/N2/Ar plasmas. The tendencies of the LER and profile angle values of the etched CVD a-C pattern were similar in both plasmas. The LER was smaller in the O2/N2/Ar than in the H2/N2/Ar plasmas, and the profile angle was larger in the O2/N2/Ar than in the H2/N2/Ar plasmas under the same processes conditions. The use of O2/N2/Ar plasma was more advantageous than the H2/N2/Ar plasma for controlling LER and profile angle.