Development of Neutral Beam Source Using Electron Beam Excited Plasma

A low-energy neutral beam (NB) source, which consists of an electron-beam-excited plasma (EBEP) source and two carbon electrodes, has been developed for damageless etching of ultra-large-scale integrated (ULSI) devices. It has been confirmed that the Ar ion beam energy was controlled by the acceleration voltage and the beam profile had good uniformity over the diameter of 80 mm. Dry etching of a Si wafer at the floating potential has been carried out by Ar NB. Si sputtering yield by an Ar NB clearly depends on the acceleration voltage. This result shows that the NB has been generated through the charge exchange reaction from the ion beam in the process chamber.