Precision integrated thickness control with gas cluster ion beam etch

Gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) etching is a technique, which among other attributes, enables advanced process control of feature height uniformity, increasingly critical to sub 16nm FINFET performance. GCIB can have a high local etch rate in a focused beam, which combined with location specific processing (LSP) algorithms, enables high-precision correction of incoming or downstream thickness uniformity. Applications of this technique include trimming of RF filter devices (in production now for over 10 years), as well as emerging applications in thickness control enabling for FINFET device integration. Here we describe the GCIB etch technology and the LSP method and capabilities.