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arXiv · 2611.03707

Surface chemistry as data for level-set simulation of etching and deposition

Lado Filipovic·Tobias Reiter·Philipp Haslhofer
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Abstract

Level-set simulators of etching and deposition move the surface with a velocity that depends on adsorbate coverages. These coverages are usually computed from balances solved and coded by hand for each chemistry, whereas voxel-based Monte Carlo profile simulators read the reaction mechanism as data. For the open-source level-set simulator ViennaPS, this work presents a surface model whose rate laws, Jacobian and velocity are derived from a reaction file and evaluated with ray-traced fluxes. Steady-state coverages are obtained with Newton's method and transient coverages with a conservative integrator. One compiled model is applied to eight chemistries for chemical vapour deposition, selective epitaxy, plasma etching, sputtering and atomic layer deposition. It reproduces a hand-written silicon etch model to seven significant digits at a single point and within the Monte Carlo noise in a masked trench. In a high-aspect-ratio cavity, alumina conformality is determined by a trimethylaluminium reaction probability within the measured range.

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Lado Filipovic, Tobias Reiter, Philipp Haslhofer. 2026-10-30. Surface chemistry as data for level-set simulation of etching and deposition. https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03707

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