Valence fragmentation dynamics of a promising low global warming etching gas CF3CHCF2

Abstract

Abstract C3HF5 (CF3CHCF2, KSG14), a promising low global warming potential (GWP < 1) alternative to traditional perfluorocarbon etching gases for advanced integrated circuit manufacturing, particularly for high-aspect-ratio SiO2/SiN stacked layers in 3D flash memory. This study investigates the dissociative photoionization dynamics of C3HF5 across 10.0–26.0 eV. Ion yield curves and breakdown diagrams reveal that C3HF5 primarily fragments into C3HF5 +, C3F5 +, C3HF4 +, C3F4 +, C2F3 +, and CF3 + ions. Appearance Energies of these fragments, determined from the ion yield curves, indicate fragmentation pathways at low electronic transitions. These findings underscore C3HF5’s potential as an environmentally friendly etching gas with excellent performance characteristics.