Control of Carbon Layer Coating on Y₂O₃ Through Plasma Sources

In semiconductor industry, many components should be coated with Y₂O₃ to prevent them from undesirable plasma damages. However, with continuously development of chemical reactants, carbon polymers or contaminant generated from the interaction of new gas plasma with Y₂O₃-coated components acts as particles or passivation elements, leading to various etching defects. Therefore, it is required to verify the interactions between the new source in a plasma and Y₂O₃. In this work, we modified the de-chuck gas conditions in a chamber equipped with newly coated Y₂O₃ components. By changing the source gas for plasma activation under de-chuck conditions, we measured the optical intensity and estimated etch rate. When the de-chuck process was conducted by switching from N₂ plasma to Ar plasma with the new Y₂O₃-coated components, CO-related EPD intensity increased 3 times and etch rate decreased. These results are attributed to the formation of the coating film caused by the interaction between C_xF_y gases and the coating material depending on the gas. This research will contribute to yield improvement in semiconductor manufacturing with the differences in coating material stabilization with the introduction of new gases.