Temperature Dependence of Plasma Chemical Vaporization Machining of Silicon and Silicon Carbide

2008 ◽  
Vol 600-603 ◽  
pp. 847-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Masayo Watanabe ◽  
Takehiro Kato ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
Hidekazu Mimura ◽  
...  

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising semiconductor material for power devices. However, it is extremely hard and chemically stable; thus there is no efficient method of machining it without causing damage to the machined surface. Plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM) is plasma etching in atmospheric-pressure plasma. PCVM has a high removal rate because the radical density in atmospheric-pressure plasma is much higher than that in conventional low-pressure plasma. Although it was found that the machining characteristic of SiC by PCVM had stronger rf power dependence than that of Si, it has not been clear whether it is radical density dependence or temperature dependence. In this paper, the temperature dependences of the PCVM of Si and SiC are examined using pipe electrode apparatus. As a result, it is found that the removal rate of SiC has a much stronger temperature dependence than that of Si and that the surface roughness of the SiC Si face becomes worse as the etching temperature increases whereas that of the C face does not increase at etching temperatures of up to 360°C.

2007 ◽  
Vol 556-557 ◽  
pp. 757-760
Author(s):  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Masayo Watanabe ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
Kazuto Yamauchi ◽  
Takeshi Ishida ◽  
...  

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising semiconductor material for power devices. However, it is so hard and so chemically stable that there is no efficient method of machining it without causing damage to the machined surface. Plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM) is plasma etching in atmospheric-pressure plasma. PCVM has a high removal rate equivalent to those of conventional machining methods such as grinding and lapping, because the radical density in atmospheric-pressure plasma is much higher than that in normal low-pressure plasma. In this paper, the polishing characteristics of SiC by PCVM are described. As a result of machining, the surface roughnesses of both Si- and C-faces were improved under a relatively low-etch-rate (100-200 nm/min) condition. The C-face was also improved under a relatively high-etch-rate (approximately 10 μm/min) condition, and a very smooth surface (below 2 nm peak-to-valley in a 500-nm-square area) was achieved.


2008 ◽  
Vol 600-603 ◽  
pp. 843-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takehiro Kato ◽  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Hideyuki Hara ◽  
Hidekazu Mimura ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
...  

Beveling is essential for preventing the chipping of the edge of a wafer during surface polishing and other processes. Plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM) is an atmospheric-pressure plasma etching process. It has a high removal rate equivalent to those of conventional machining methods such as grinding and lapping, which are used for high-hardness materials such as silicon carbide, due to the generation of high-density radicals in atmospheric-pressure plasma. Furthermore, PCVM does not damage the wafer surface because it is a purely chemical process; therefore, it is considered that PCVM can be used as an effective method of beveling the edge of SiC wafers. In this paper, we report the investigation of the beveling of SiC wafers by PCVM.


2014 ◽  
Vol 778-780 ◽  
pp. 759-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Hiroaki Nishikawa ◽  
Yuu Okada ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
Satoshi Matsuyama ◽  
...  

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising semiconductor material for high-temperature, high-frequency, high-power, and energy-saving applications. However, because of the hardness and chemical stability of SiC, few conventional machining methods can handle this material efficiently. A plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM) technique is an atmospheric-pressure plasma etching process. We previously proposed a novel style of PCVM dicing using slit apertures for plasma confinement, which in principle can achieve both a high removal rate and small kerf loss, and demonstration experiments were performed using a silicon wafer as a sample. In this research, some basic experiments were performed using 4H-SiC wafer as a sample, and a maximum removal rate of approximately 10 μm/min and a narrowest groove width of 25 μm were achieved. We also found that argon can be used for plasma generation instead of expensive helium gas.


2014 ◽  
Vol 778-780 ◽  
pp. 750-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuu Okada ◽  
Hiroaki Nishikawa ◽  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
Kazuto Yamauchi

In recent years, silicon (Si) has been mainly used in power devices, but the limit of its performance is being reached. Therefore, silicon carbide (SiC) power devices have been attracting attention because they enable the fabrication of devices with low power consumption. To reduce the on-resistance in vertical power transistors, backside thinning is required after device processing. However, it is difficult to thin a SiC wafer with a high removal rate by conventional mechanical processing because its high hardness and brittleness cause cracking and chipping during thinning. Therefore, we have attempted to thin a SiC wafer using plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM), which is plasma etching using atmospheric-pressure plasma. In this study, we describe a machining property using a newly developed slit electrode that is composed of two parts and has a slit that allows for a new gas to pass.


2012 ◽  
Vol 497 ◽  
pp. 160-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Kohei Aida ◽  
Hiroaki Nishikawa ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
Satoshi Matsuyama ◽  
...  

Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices have received much attention in recent years because they enable the fabrication of devices with a low power consumption. To reduce the on-resistance in vertical power transistors, backside thinning is required after device processing. However, it is difficult to thin a SiC wafer with a high removal rate by conventional mechanical machining because its high hardness and brittleness cause cracking and chipping during thinning. We have attempted to thin a SiC wafer by plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM), which is plasma etching using atmospheric-pressure plasma. In this paper, we describe a machining property using a newly developed flat-bar electrode with multiple gas nozzles for thinning a SiC wafer.


2012 ◽  
Vol 516 ◽  
pp. 108-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhisa Sano ◽  
Kohei Aida ◽  
Hiroaki Nishikawa ◽  
Kazuya Yamamura ◽  
Satoshi Matsuyama ◽  
...  

Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices have received much attention in recent years because they enable the fabrication of devices with low power consumption. To reduce the on-resistance in vertical power transistors, back-side thinning is required after device processing. However, it is difficult to thin a SiC wafer with a high removal rate by conventional mechanical machining because its high hardness and brittleness cause cracking and chipping during thinning. In this study, we attempted to thin a SiC wafer by plasma chemical vaporization machining (PCVM), which is plasma etching using atmospheric-pressure plasma. The wafer level thinning of a 2-inch 4H-SiC wafer has been possible without a removal thickness distribution caused by the circular shape of the wafer using the newly developed PCVM apparatus for back-side thinning with a spatial wafer stage.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 1002002
Author(s):  
宋力 Song Li ◽  
顿爱欢 Dun Aihuan ◽  
王哲 Wang Zhe ◽  
吴伦哲 Wu Lunzhe ◽  
彭冰 Peng Bing ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Duo Li ◽  
Peng Ji ◽  
Yang Xu ◽  
Bo Wang ◽  
Zheng Qiao ◽  
...  

AbstractFused silica with structured and continuous patterns is increasingly demanded in advanced imaging and illumination fields because of its excellent properties and functional performance. Atmospheric pressure plasma, based on pure chemical etching under atmospheric pressure, is developed as a promising fabrication technique for fused silica due to its deterministic high material removal rate, controllable removal imprint and no mechanical load. The stable and controllable Gaussian-shape removal function makes computer-controlled plasma tool potential to generate complex structures with high accuracy, efficiency and flexibility. In the paper, computer-controlled atmospheric pressure plasma structuring (APPS) is proposed to fabricate 2D/3D patterns on fused silica optics. The capacitively coupled APPS system with a double-layer plasma torch and its discharge characteristics are firstly developed. By means of multi-physics simulation and process investigation, the stable and controllable Gaussian-shape removal function can be achieved. Two different structuring modes, including discrete and continuous APPS, are explored for 2D/3D patterns. A series of structuring experiments show that different kinds of 2D patterns (including square lens array, hexagon lens array and groove array) as well as complex 3D phase plate patterns have been successfully fabricated, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed APPS of 2D/3D patterns on fused silica optics.


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