Mirzafer K. Abatchev, Ph. D.

e-mail: plasmaetch@cableone.net
Boise, ID, USA

SKILLS:

Technical leadership; creative and innovative; broad and deep technical expertise in plasma etch physics and chemistry, plasma diagnostics; dry etch process development for various materials in the area of Semiconductor Technology, Nanotechnology and MEMS; design and specification of hard mask layer for advanced patterning; technology transfer, Chamber Matching: procedures including Equipment and Process aspects; Statistical Methods (DOE): JMP, Minitab; Programming languages: Fortran, Matlab, Scilab; Photolithography simulation: Solid-E ; Web page: HTML.

EXPERIENCE:

Lam Research, Senior Staff Engineer, 2010-present

Through-Silicon Vias (TSV) etch development for 3D Integrated Circuit applications.

Western Didital, Senior Staff Engineer - Product Design, 2009-2010

Development of processes and process flows to make integrated optical elements for next generation Hard Drive (HAMR - Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording).

Micron Technology, Inc., Senior Engineer, 1997-2007

Was a key team player on advanced strategic projects:

• Proposed the process flow (stack, materials and process sequences) and developed most dry etch processes to make small (sub- 50nm) features at a pitch less than 100nm that enabled earlier development of 50nm NAND FLASH in year of 2004. The result of this project was more than $1,000,000,000 in investments by Intel in IM Flash Technologies (IMFT is a joint venture of Micron Technology and Intel to produce NAND flash memory). Micron Technology uses this technique for manufacturing of 34nm chip (the highest density monolithic multi-level cell NAND flash chip the industry has seen in 2009). I am the co-author of few key patents on this method.
• Developed critical etch processes for double patterning of cell container (DRAM)
• Multi-layer resist and a-Carbon HM etch for fine patterning of small (35nm-150nm) features. From the very first wafer until transfer to production, individually managed projects and developed a-Carbon and MLR etch process on different etch tools (Applied Materials and LAM Research) for most critical etch levels at Micron Technology, Inc.
• Developed high-k dielectric materials etch processes for NAND FLASH memory applications.
• Developed STI etch process with X+Y gas mixture. Micron Technology uses this process with some minor changes for production of many generations of DRAM and FLASH memory.

• - STI etch
• - Gate etch
• - Silicon Oxide etch
• - Metal etch
• - MLR and a-C hard mask etch
• - Resist trim
• - Line edge roughness (LER) improvement

Investigated plasma induced damage caused by differential charging of a wafer surface during plasma processing of dielectric materials.

Solved many problems related with an etch process drift and matching of chambers. Hands on experience with different types of plasma etchers (AMAT, LAM and TEL)

Investigated the effect of aberrations of lenses on degradation of the aerial image of structures. Zernike aberration theory was applied to understand the impact of different types of aberrations (spherical, coma, astigmatism, 3-foil, etc.) on printing performance of the lithographic system. The result of this simulation was used to explain poor printing performance of some steppers in the FAB. Studied the sensitivity to aberrations at printing of 45nm features with next generation optical lithography systems (immersion lithography at NA=1.35). Have experience with lithography simulation software SOLID-E (developed by SIGMA-C and SYNOPSYS).

Samsung Electronics, South Korea; Manager/Researcher, 1994-1997

Investigated different aspects and problems related with silicon oxide etch processes:

• Etch mechanism in a fluorocarbon containing plasma,
• Microscopic etch uniformity (RIE Lag and microloading effect)
• Etch stop problems.
• Differential surface charging.

Investigated kinetics of a pulse modulated plasma using time-resolved optical actinometry.

Consulted process development engineers in the area of dry etch and plasma diagnostics.

Research Institute Submicron, Zelenograd, Moscow, Russia; Senior Researcher, 1992-1994

Worked on application of acoustooptical (multi-channel) emission spectrometer for plasma diagnostics, plasma etch reactor optimization and etch endpoint detection.

Investigation of F and H kinetics in radio frequency discharges using time-resolved optical actinometry.

Institute of Physics and Technology,USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Staff Researcher, 1991-1992

Developed FORTRAN code to simulate a trench profile evolution during dry etch process.

For the first time simulation of the etch profile evolution was performed by combining the Monte-Carlo test particle and Fredholm integral equations methods.

Scientific Research Institute for Molecular Electronics and Mikron Factory, Zelenograd, Moscow, Russia; Junior Researcher, 1989-1991

Investigated the etch performance of a high pressure (~1 Torr) narrow gap plasma etch system (RIE).

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Department of Physical and Quantum Electronics, Dolgoprudny, Moscow, Russia. 1981-1989

• Ph.D., Physics (Solid State Electronics and Microelectronics), 1990
  Thesis: Dissertation 'Investigation of a deep trench formation in silicon during plasma-chemical and reactive ion etching processes' was presented and defended in Institute of Physics and Technology of USSR Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia).
  Experimentally and theoretically investigated the microscopic etch non-uniformity during dry etch process. For the first time the simulation of 'Aperture effect' (RIE lag, inverse RIE lag) was performed using Fredholm integral equations method.
  
• M.Sc., Engineering Physicist, (Honours degree) 1986
  In my M.Sc thesis I investigated effect of ion energy on the thickness of damaged Si layer in the low frequency RIE system.
  Topics of study:
  General physics, Theoretical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, The classical Theory of Fields, Statistical Physics, Physical Kinetics, Solid State Physics, Physical Optics, Physics of Semiconductor Devices, Mathematical Analysis, Theory of Functions of Complex Variable, Theory of Ordinary Differential Equations, Theory of Partial Differential Equations, Theory of Probability, Numerical Methods, etc.

Miscellaneous Notes