Magnetic Material Wet Etch Method by Fluoride Hydrogen Peroxide Mixture (FHPM)

Sicong Chen1, Liang Li1, Lulu Peng1, Yun Ling Tan1, Peter Lim2, Thomas Pau2, Aoki Rikuta2, and
Kok Shen Chong1
1
GlobalFoundries Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore, sicong.chen@globalfoundries.com
2
SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd.
chemical is the lowest for CoO. However,
Abstract
throughput of CoO in incoming PVD process is slow.
Wafer scale on-chip power inductor enables
Thus, CoO may not be a good option for mass
integrated voltage regulator (IVR). Sputtered
production. AlN interface layer is thus evaluated due
amorphous magnetic is the core material for IVR.
to its availability and higher throughput. In this
Magnetic material wet etch is the challenge due to
paper, we developed a new wet etch method and will
the complex properties of magnetic multilayer stack.
be implemented to whole wafer evaluation.
In this paper, we develop a new wet etching method
for magnetic multilayer stack using fluoride Experiment and Method
hydrogen peroxide mixture (FHPM). FHPM Selection of chemical compositions and temperature
fulfilled 3 evaluation criteria of wet etch chemicals: are critical for wet etch method. In this paper,
1. Fast etch rate of magnetic multilayer stack with fluoride acid and chlorine acid are chosen to etch
good process timing control; 2. Low etch rate of CZT magnetic multilayer stack. Oxidizing agent is
protective cap layer; 3. No attack to resist layer. This also added into the reaction. Alkaline is also tested
method has been demonstrated on beaker test but cannot remove magnetic multilayer stack.
successfully and will be implemented on the whole
wafer test to check the performance. Evaluation is conducted in 2 modes: 1. Beaker test
(Keywords: IVR, Inductor, Magnetic multilayer, to choose the best known chemical composition and
Wet etch) processing condition. 2. Whole wafer test to
demonstrate the efficiency of etching process.
Introduction
Various mixing ratio and temperature have been
In mobile devices (e.g., handphone, pad), off-chip
evaluated to understand the etching characteristics.
magnetics (inductors/transformers) in power circuits
are usually bulky and expensive. With switching
The wet etch method FHPM is evaluated using 3
frequency increasing to 20MHz or higher, the
criteria: 1. Process timing is controlled within 3 min
required inductance value is reduced to a few
so that the chemical cost and throughput is
hundred nH. This value makes on-chip power
economical; 2. Low etch rate of protective cap layer;
inductor to be feasible, and hence on-chip power
3. No attack to resist layer, no lifting and
inductor becomes the key to integrated voltage
delamination of resist layer in contact with etchant.
regulator (IVR) [1-3]. To make the inductor, one
option is to implement top metal layer in BEOL
Visual check, scanning electron microscope and
process. However, limited thickness of metal layer
energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX)
(~5um) results in large DC resistance (a few Ω),
are used to characterize the magnetic layer
large DC/AC power loss and low efficiency. Another
properties. Visual check is based on the surface
option is to introduce magnetic core, which reduces
color change, i.e., the grey color of magnetic
the required number of turns, and hence reduces DC
multilayer fades during etching process. SEM is to
resistance for the same inductance. More and more
analyze the layer structure and profile. EDX is to
companies, including semiconductor fabs, IC design
analyze the layer elements.
houses, and even discrete passive component
vendors, are putting lots of attention into this Results and Discussion
technology. Wafer scale on-chip power inductor This section evaluates the efficiency of FHPM on
could become a potential trend for power magnetic multilayer stack by visual check and SEM
management applications. analysis. Then FHPM performance is evaluated
based on the etch rate on CZT, AlN and protective
Commonly known magnetic multilayer stack layer, and its attack on resist layer. Finally, the
consists of CoZrTa (CZT) as the magnetic layer and whole wafer test is conducted to evaluate FHPM.
CoO, SiO2 or AlN as the interface layer, respectively.
A. Best Known Chemical Ratio for FHPM
For the interface layer, the resistance to the etching
In order to keep a high etch rate on CZT layer while
978-1-5386-6508-4/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 2019 Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing Conference (EDTM)
keep a low etch rate on protective layer, the
percentage of fluoride acid in FHPM is the essential.
Low fluoride acid concentration is preferred to so
that the etch rate on the protective layer is controlled
as low rate. The ratio of fluoride acid against
oxidizing agent is 1: 15. High temperature is
preferred, because the overall etch rate increases
with temperature. The presented test result of FHPM
uses the optimized mixing ratio and temperature
determined in beaker tests.
B. Visual Check and SEM in Beaker Test
In beaker test, the color of the wafer has changed
from original grey color of magnetic multilayer
stack (Fig.1a) into dark blue color of underlying
layer (Fig.1b) in 2 min. After soaking in FPHM for 3
min, SEM check is then conducted for the beaker
tests.
(a) (b)
Fig. 1: Visual check of etching efficiency: (a) Before
etching; (b) After etching by FPHM for 2 min.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 2: SEM check of etching efficiency: Before
etching: (a) overall image of magnetic multilayer and
underlying layer; (b) the magnetic multilayer; (c) the
underlying layer; After etching: (d) the overall image
only contains underlying layer without magnetic
multilayer.
Fig.2a is the overview of the initial layer structure,
which consists of magnetic multilayer (Fig.2b) and
2019 Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing Conference (EDTM)
the underlying layer (Fig.2c). As shown in Fig.2d,
after etching by FPHM 3 min, it is observed that the
magnetic multilayer has been fully removed, while
the underlying layer is not attacked by the etching
chemical. The thickness of underlying layer is the
same before and after etching. It means that FPHM
has limited impact on the underlying layer.
D. Etch Rate Check in Beaker Test
The ratio of etch rate is 118: 1 for CZT only layer
against protective layer. Because the etch rate of
AlN interface is lower than CZT only layer, the ratio
of etch rate is 30:1 for CZT multilayer stack against
protective layer. Without fluoride acid, the CZT
multilayer stack cannot be etched away. A high
concentration of fluoride acid increases the etch rate,
because the fluoride acid is a better electrophile than
chloride acid. Thus it may react with AlN interface
layer more efficiently.
E. Resist Attack in Beaker Test
All test wafers are covered with full face polyimide.
Different curing temperatures with and without
descum condition are applied on the polyimide.
Afterwards the resist is coated and exposed with
some dummy test structures (different lines and
spaces, etc.).
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 4: SEM images for resist attack: Before etch (a)
overview, (b) cross section; After etch (c) overview (d)
cross section, the resist is not attacked by etching
chemical.
Because the chosen concentration of fluoride acid is
low, thus the penetration effect of fluoride acid is
negligible in short processing time of 3 min. Thus, as
shown in Fig. 4, the resist and polyimide are not
attacked by etching chemical FPHM.
F. Whole Wafer Test
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 5: Visual check of whole wafer tests: (a) before
etch; (b) 2 min; (c) 4 min; (d) 10 min.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 6: EDX check of whole wafer tests at 10 min: (a)
center SEM (b) center EDX; (c) edge SEM (d) edge
EDX.
As shown in Fig. 5, the initial color of whole wafer
is grey. At 2 min (Fig. 5b), the center of the wafer
begins to change the color, which means that the
magnetic multilayer stack has been etched away in
the center. At 10 min (Fig. 5d), the whole wafer has
changed the color. This time difference on wafer
center and wafer edge is due to the poor etching
uniformity, thus further recipe optimization was
required to improve the etching uniformity, such as
wafer rotation speed change and nozzle scanning
condition change of single-wafer spin wet clean tool.
2019 Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing Conference (EDTM)
Theoretically, whole wafer should be clear of
magnetic multilayer stack in about 3 min based on
the beaker test results. The SEM-EDX (Fig.6) shows
that the center and edge is clear of magnetic
multilayer stack CZT/AlN. The four elements, (i.e.
C, O, Ti, and Si), comes from the underlying layer.
Conclusion
In this paper, we develop a new wet etch method for
magnetic multilayer using fluoride hydrogen
peroxide mixture (FHPM). FHPM has proven to
etch away magnetic multilayer completely within
controllable processing time (i.e. 3 min) so that the
chemical cost and throughput is economical. The
etch rate on protective layer is also controlled at low
level, i.e. the selectivity is 30:1 for CZT multilayer
stack against protective layer. There is no attack on
resist layer during the processing. Further
optimization will be conducted in future work in
order to increase the etch uniformity and undercut
control.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the
contributions of Lawrence Selvaraj, Zishan Ali Syed
Mohammed, Honghui Mou, Heming Zhao,
Kishimoto Takuya, Okamoto Koichi, and Yasuhiko
Nagai for their support for this work.
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