Etching of Magnetic Materials Using Ar-CO/NH3 in a Reactive Ion Etching System

Abstract

A new automatic RIE etching system has been developed. Multi-layers of magnetic materials were fabricated using this system. We compared the process of using conventional Ar gas plasma and the process using CO/NH3gas plasma. Then by combining the two processes, we achieved smooth surface and good uniformity with a good selectivity to photoresist mask. And few of corrosions appeared at the sidewall of trench. Additionally, the etching process could stop exactly at the stop layer. The whole processes ran at a chamber without control of temperature, pressure and end point detection.