The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 12, 2020
Filed:
Aug. 12, 2019
National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, Llc, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Michael David Henry, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Travis Ryan Young, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Erica Ann Douglas, Albuquerque, NM (US);
National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Abstract
A fabrication process employing the use of ScAlN as an etch mask is disclosed. The ScAlN etch mask is chemically nonvolatile in fluorine-based etch chemistries and has a low sputter yield, resulting in greater etch mask selectivity and reduced surface roughness for silicon and other semiconductor materials. The ScAlN etch mask has an etch mask selectivity of greater than 200,000:1 relative to silicon compared to an etch mask selectivity of less than 40,000:1 for a prior art AlN etch mask relative to silicon. Further, due to reduced sputtering of the ScAlN etch mask, and thus reduced micromasking, the ScAlN etch mask yielded a surface roughness of 0.6 μm compared to a surface roughness of 2.8 μm for an AlN etch mask.