Numerical simulation of plasma etching process with AAO mask based on PIC/MCC model

Abstract

This paper presents a Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo Collision (PIC/MCC) numerical simulation to investigate plasma etching processes utilizing an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) mask. The model characterizes key plasma parameters, including electron/ion density distributions and particle flux, and analyzes the interactions between plasma and the AAO mask/substrate during etching. By simulating plasma evolution within a cylindrical AAO cavity, this study reveals charge density distributions, particle trajectories, and the coupling effects of physical bombardment and chemical etching. The results provide a theoretical foundation for optimizing the fabrication of nanostructured silicon via AAO-templated dry etching, emphasizing the critical influence of charge accumulation on etching profiles.

Keywords

Plasma etching / AAO / PIC/MCC / Charge density / Particle trajectory / Nanostructured silicon

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Zeping Li: Writing – original draft, Methodology. Ran An: Investigation, Data curation. Mingyan Yang: Investigation, Formal analysis. Dongjing Li: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Conceptualization. Hao Wu: Writing – review & editing, Software, Conceptualization.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (12505231) and National Scientific Research Project Cultivation Program of Hubei University of Science and Technology (2023-25GP01).

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