Correlation between dry etching resistance of Ta masks and the oxidation states of the surface oxide layers

Mechanisms of dry etching resistance of Ta masks, which are widely used for magnetic random access memory etching processes, have been investigated for a better understanding of their faceting characteristics. In magnetic-material etching processes by CO/NH3 or CH3OH plasmas, CO+ ion is considered as one of the most dominant ion species irradiating the substrate surface. An earlier study by Li et al. [J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 33, 040602 (2015)] has shown that the Ta sputtering yield by CO+ ion irradiation depends strongly on the ion irradiation angle and the level of the surface oxidation. In this study, the primary focus is placed on the effects of surface oxidation and physical sputtering only (without possible chemical effects of carbon) on the etching rate of Ta, and the etching characteristics of Ta and Ta2O5 have been examined with Ar+ and/or oxygen ion beams. It has been found that there is a strong negative correlation between the etching rate of Ta and the oxidation states of the surface oxide lay...