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The subject of this report is the characterization of plasma etch residues after a metal etch process with Cl2/BCl3 etch gases. One of the interactive factors in the removability of the residues is the photo-mask removal process (DSQ). Depending on the DSQ process the molecular structure of the residues will differ. For our findings, we used laser spectroscopy and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy to obtain information about the degree of the cross-linking of the molecular structure of residues in a post-metal etch cleaning process. The post-etch cleaning is important for removing residues remaining after the metal structuring process. The main goal is to use emission spectroscopy for studying the compounds of the dry-etch related residues. Finally, it was shown that small variations in wafer treatment directly after dry-etching results in different solubilities of residues in HDA (hydroxylamine) based solutions. [1]

Since the discovery of bulk metallic glasses there has been considerable research effort on these systems, in particular with respect to mass transport. Now the undercooled melt between the melting temperature and the caloric glass transition temperature, which has not been accessible before due to the rapid onset of crystallization, can be investigated and theories can be tested. Here we report on radiotracer diffusion measurements in metallic bulk-glass-forming Pd-Cu-Ni-P alloys. Serial sectioning was performed by grinding and ion-beam sputtering. The time, temperature as well as the mass dependence, expressed in terms of the isotope effect E, of Co-diffusion were investigated. The Co isotope effect measurements, which have never been carried out near Tc in any material, show atomic transport up to the equilibrium melt to be far away from the hydrodynamic regime of uncorrelated binary collisions. In the glassy state as well as in the deeply supercooled state below the critical temperature Tc, where the mode coupling theory predicts a freezing-in of liquid-like motion, the experimentally determined very small isotope effects indicate a highly collective hopping mechanism involving some ten atoms. Below Tc the temperature dependence shows Arrhenius-type behavior with an effective activation enthalpy of 3.2 eV. Above Tc the onset of liquid-like motion is evidenced by a gradual drop of the effective activation energy and by the validity of the Stokes-Einstein equation, which is found to break down below Tc. Although having strong covalent bonding tendencies, Phosphorous diffusion is only slightly slower than Co diffusion, indicating that it does not determine the overall viscosity below Tc. The Stokes-Einstein equation is presently tested for other constituents of the alloy.

The metallization of organic thin films is a crucial point in the development of organic electronic devices. There is no method established yet to detect trace amounts of metal atoms in the organic thin films after metal deposition. Radiotracer measurements are probably the most sensitive tool to study diffusion and to quantify even very small amounts of material penetrating into the bulk. So far, this has been shown for metals and polymers, but not for thin ordered molecular organic films. Here, the first application of this technique on a well-characterized organic thin film system, diindenoperylene using thermally evaporated Ag containing 110mAg radiotracers is shown. The results show that Ag is mainly adsorbed on the surface, but indicate that already at moderate substrate temperatures small concentrations of Ag can penetrate into the organic thin films and agglomerate at the interface during metallization.

Two component nanocomposites of polymer containing 3d transition metal clusters are of immense interest because of their potential future applications in magnetic high frequency or data storage media, in particular: However, nanoscale engineering of such airstable 3d clusters protected in polymer layers is a major technological challenge, given the readily reactive nature of such nanoparticles. In this invited paper, we introduce relatively simple vapour phase deposition as a powerful solvent free technique to prepare polymer nanocomposites containing 3d transition metal clusters. The different vapour phase production routes investigated show that the technique lends itself to the formation of metallic clusters of the appropriate size while reactions of the reactive Ni atoms with the growing Teflon AF matrix, contrary to common belief, do not take place. In addition to other results, a promising route of vapour phase tandem evaporation to produce nanoclusters of reactive Ni protected between the capping layers of Teflon AF is particularly presented. Independent control over homogeneously distributed particle size ( similar to 3 - 10 nm) is discussed, while increasing a cluster volume filling from similar to 1 to 20 % by following co-deposition to many sequential thermal evaporation of the two components. TEM electron diffraction investigations have shown that crystal structure of such nanoclusters to be fee, confirming the bulk Ni crystal parameters.