Low energy ECR plasma etching with a hybrid magnetic field

Abstract It is shown that a new cold and low-energy ECR ion etching system is effective as dry etching technique for fabrication of VLSI devices. In this system, plasma instabilities are suppressed by MHD stable magnetic field consisting solenoid coil and multicusp magnets. The ion temperature, which is strongly related to plasma instabilities, is lowered below 2eV in this system. Etched profiles show a strong anisotropic feature without applying any external bias. The plasma density is also enhanced by using a minimum-B field.