I want to etch 300 nm SiC using ICP of HCl gas. It is possible to use thick photoresist layer such as 1 um of AZ6612 in our ICP system for SiC etching. However, I want to thin down the thickness of the etching mask in order to make some SiC nanoscale structures. Does anyone know the etching rate of Cr mask in a HCl ICP?
Cr is a very hard mask and it's sputtering rate is very low. So, it should work fine. Another choice is Nickel. I used it to protect my gold nano structures from CF4 and it worked great.
Albeit You must check the Selectivity of HCl, due to Cr not Damaged.
Thank you very much for your comments. In fact, Cr reacts with HCl to form CrCl+H2. I have run some processes and found that Cr (40 nm) was etched by HCl ICP, but with a much lower etching rate compared to SiC. Therefore, a thick Cr layer would be a good mask for etching SiC.
For fluoride gases such as CF4 and SF6, the etching rate of Cr is even lower, as such a very thin Cr layer could withstand a long etching time. Unfortunately, we only have HCl gas in our lab so I need to optimize thickness of Cr to make sure that it's not totally removed until the SiC layer is clearly etched.
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