Using VICTORY Process for Plasma Etching Simulations

Introduction

VICTORY Process, the 3D process simulator now includes a module for plasma etching. The module is designed to simulate plasma etching processes at the feature-scale size. The simulation in the reactor-scale region is out of the scope of VICTORY Process. All transport characteristics data (as functions of reactor parameters needed for the feature-scale simulation) are modeled by user definable C-functions and are supplied to the module. The plasma etching simulator shares many elements with the standard physical etching /deposition module such as:

• The topology of a given feature, defined by its layers of various materials, as described by level set functions given on Cartesian meshes
• All fine details of the structure are captured on imbedded finer meshes, and automatic and/or manual adaptive mesh refinement is available
• Particles fluxes, etch rates for different materials and types of particles involved in the process are modeled by appropriate functions, which are implemented in the user accessible C-Interpreter model library
• All feature topological changes caused by the plasma etching process during a given time are captured by the solution of the corresponding partial differential equations acting on the level set functions
• A feature’s structure is automatically updated after the simulation time has expired