Auger electron spectroscopy study of reactive ion etched silicon carbide

Reactive ion etching (RIE) of bulk 4H-SiC based on CHF3–O2 plasma was studied by varying the rf power and process pressure. The elements on the etched surface and the surface roughness were characterized by Auger electron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy, respectively. It was found that the surface roughening is mainly caused by Al contamination and C rich layer (C residues) induced micromasking effect. The micromasking effect is in turn determined by the dc self-bias developed at the substrates. A threshold dc self-bias exists at around −320 to −330 V, beyond which no micromasking effect was observed. This observation is explained in terms of physical ion bombardment and sputtering in the RIE process.