Damage-Free Plasma Source for Atomic-Scale Processing.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39239915.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c02598.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
As atomic-scale etching and deposition processes become necessary for manufacturing logic and memory devices at the sub-5 nm node, the limitations of conventional plasma technology are becoming evident. For atomic-scale processes, precise critical dimension control at the sub-1 nm scale without plasma-induced damage and high selectivity between layers are required. In this paper, a plasma with very low electron temperature is applied for damage-free processing on the atomic scale. In plasmas with an ultralow electron temperature (ULET, <i>T</i><sub>e</sub> < 0.5 eV), ion energies are very low, and the ion energy distribution is narrow. The absence of physical damage in ULET plasma is verified by exposing 2D structural material. In the ULET plasma, charging damage and radiation damage are also expected to be suppressed due to the extremely low <i>T</i><sub>e</sub>. This ULET plasma source overcomes the limitations of conventional plasma sources and provides insights to achieve damage-free atomic-scale processes.