% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@PHDTHESIS{Stern:1044497,
author = {Stern, Christian},
title = {{R}eactive {F}ield {A}ssisted {S}intering of {N}ovel {R}are
{E}arth {G}arnets for {P}lasma {E}tching {A}pplications},
volume = {667},
school = {RWTH Aachen University},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Jülich},
publisher = {Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag},
reportid = {FZJ-2025-03234},
isbn = {978-3-95806-833-9},
series = {Schriften des Forschungszentrums Jülich Reihe Energie $\&$
Umwelt / Energy $\&$ Environment},
pages = {VII, 109, XXVIII},
year = {2025},
note = {Keine Open Access Freigabe!; Dissertation, RWTH Aachen
University, 2025},
abstract = {Over the last decades, semiconductor manufacturing
processes have seen significant advancements. Due to their
high resistance to fluorine-based etching plasmas, advanced
structural ceramics, such as yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG),
are commonly used as inner wall materials in plasma etching
devices. However, driven by the ongoing refinement of the
manufacturing process and the increasing complexity of
plasma gas compositions, there is a growing need for
alternative materials that offer enhanced plasma etch
resistance. To address this, the following work investigates
lanthanoid garnets beyond YAG as alternative inner wall
materials for the application in fluorine-based etching
plasmas. It is hypothesized that substituting the Y3+ ion in
the garnet crystal with heavier ions can enhance overall
plasma etch resistance. The study first investigates the
effect of fully substituting Y3+ with the lanthanoids Er3+,
Yb3+, and Lu3+, on the plasma etch resistance. Additionally,
the impact of partially substituting the yttrium ion with
Yb3+ and Lu3+ was studied. Samples were processed using the
reactive field-assisted sintering technology/ spark plasma
sintering (FAST/SPS) of the respective oxides. This
innovative approach allows for near net shape consolidation
close to theoretical density in a single process step with
short processing times. The plasma etch resistance of the
ceramic samples was tested in a systematic etching study.
Specimens were exposed to fluorine-based etching plasmas
(Ar/CF4/O2). By adjusting main process parameters such as
bias voltage and process pressure, the corrosiveness of the
plasma was varied from weak to aggressive. Depending on the
plasma conditions, the erosion was either more chemically or
physically driven. The subsequent characterization procedure
was adapted according to the dominating erosion mechanisms.
To achieve a fundamental understanding of the erosion
process in weak plasma, a correlative approach for assessing
critical parameters of the induced chemical gradient in
etched samples was developed. Using this procedure, a
reduced plasma penetration was found in rare earth garnets
compared to YAG. However, in aggressive plasma conditions,
YAG outperformed lanthanoid garnets, even though a minor
effect of the heavier dopant ions was evident. By
investigating both application-oriented and fundamental
aspects, this work builds a solid basis for the
target-oriented application of alternative garnets in
semiconductor manufacturing processes.},
cin = {IMD-2},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IMD-2-20101013},
pnm = {899 - ohne Topic (POF4-899)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-899},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)3 / PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1044497},
}