Fujitsu Corporation

Takatoshi Hirota

Hideo Kimura

Shiro Naoi

Kazuo Imaoka

Mitsuharu Sato

Satoshi Yokoyama

Takaaki Onoe

In a flat display device having a pair of substrates for defining a gas discharge space in which a gas used to generate discharge luminance is sealed, means for absorbing or reflecting near infrared rays is included.

Flat display device

The method to etch an electrically conductive film comprises the steps of: forming a metal conductor film comprising copper or copper alloy, upon a substrate; and forming a mask pattern upon the metal conductor film; and etching an exposed part of the metal conductor film by the use of the mask pattern and a reactive ion-etching (RIE) employing a plasma of a gas mixture comprising a silicon tetra-chloride (SiCl.sub.4) gas, a nitrogen (N.sub.2) gas and a carbon compound gas, so that the exposed part of the metal conductor film is removed so as to leave the masked part. The metal conductor film may further comprise a diffusion protection layer formed of a refractory metal or its alloy upon and/or underneath the copper/mainly-copper layer. The mask pattern may be typically formed of silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2). The substrate may further comprise an insulating layer thereon, typically formed of silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2), for contacting said metal conductor film. The carbon compound gas may typically be a carbon tetra-chloride (CCl.sub.4), methane (CH.sub.4), ethane (C.sub.2 H.sub.6) or propane (C.sub.3 H.sub.8) and so on. When SiCl.sub.4 is employed the content may typically be 6.6 to 15% by volume in the gas mixture. When methane (CH.sub.4) gas is employed the content may typically be 8 to 18% by volume in the gas mixture. The etching step may preferably performed at a substrate temperature higher than 250.degree. C.

Method of reactive ion etching of a thin copper film

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Takatoshi Hirota