Investigation of the gas pressure influence on patterned platinum etching characteristics using a high-density plasma

A high-density surface-wave magnetized argon plasma operated in the very low pressure regime together with a rf biased system is used to study the pure physical etching characteristics of platinum thin films. It is shown that, for a given dc self-bias voltage, the platinum etch rate strongly decreases as the operating pressure increases, which results from a decrease of the ion density at the sheath edge and from enhanced redeposition. It is found that using a high-density plasma in the very low pressure regime yields high etch rates with a good selectivity over resist. Fence-free features can also be achieved at bias voltages that, in contrast with reactive ion etching reactors, are only slightly above the platinum sputtering threshold. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.