HaloFreeEtch · Novel approaches for halogen-free and sustainable etching of Silicon and Glass

Current industrial plasma etching processes are not sustainable because they make use of halogens. HaloFreeEtch will take a fundamental, interdisciplinary and systematic approach to find new halogen-free etching processes.HaloFreeEtch aims to identify new, halogen-free and sustainable etching processes for sustainable semiconductor manufacturing, applied to deep etching of silicon and silicon oxide. The novel etching processes we aim for shall be clean (in terms of harmful chemicals), efficient (in terms of processing speed and manufacturability) and precise (in terms of the desired shapes). HaloFreeEtch will provide a novel model- and data-based methodology for sustainability and life cycle analysis of plasma-etching to quantify the carbon-footprint of all novel etching processes. HaloFreeEtch combines lab-scale research on three innovative technological routes with computational screening of novel and promising etchants, a comprehensive multi-scale modeling approach to predict potential working points and a model-based life cycle and sustainability analysis. Hydrogen (H)-based, metal catalyst-assisted as well as approaches inspired by atomic layer etching (ALE) will be studied. State-of-the-art plasma etching machines will be modified and combined with innovative features and advanced analytics. Besides getting rid of halogens, we will address more dimensions of sustainability such as the high energy consumption of the established plasma etching processes. HaloFreeEtch will implement a novel, sustainability-driven process development scheme which might serve as a blueprint for sustainability-driven process development in electronics and many other industries. The project will focus on the semiconductor industry, where plasma etching is a standard industrial process used for many applications. Taking the lead in the development of innovative halogen-free processes will strengthen the long-term position of the EU in the global chips industry.