Due to their chemical inertness and high-temperature stability, atomic layer deposited (ALD) oxide thin films emerged as an attractive copper encapsulation, passivation, and protection technology. Several types of high-k dielectrics, which are robust insulators, can be deposited by ALD. Hence, a successful encapsulation process electrically isolates the underlying film and active elements from the environment, as a side effect. To electrically interface such encapsulated structures, a reliable method that selectively and locally removes the encapsulation film is required. Here, the study focused on the effectiveness of laser drilling and plasma etching of Al₂O₃ thin films deposited via ALD, both in silico and experimentally. Results have shown that the CO₂ laser drilling alone is insufficient to remove the Al₂O₃ thin films. However, plasma etching successfully removes the encapsulation layer, providing a clean interface for conductive vias. Results are essential for future ALD layer applications in the encapsulation of copper and other critical components in semiconductor fabrication processes.

由于其化学惰性和高温稳定性，原子层沉积 (ALD) 氧化物薄膜成为一种有吸引力的铜封装、钝化和保护技术。几种类型的高 k 电介质是坚固的绝缘体，可以通过 ALD 沉积。因此，作为副作用，成功的封装工艺将下面的薄膜和有源元件与环境电隔离。为了电连接这种封装结构，需要一种可靠的方法来选择性地和局部地去除封装膜。在这里，研究的重点是激光钻孔和等离子体蚀刻通过ALD沉积的 Al ₂ O ₃薄膜的有效性，两者都在硅和实验。结果表明，单独的CO ₂激光钻孔不足以去除Al ₂ O ₃薄膜。然而，等离子蚀刻成功地去除了封装层，为导电通孔提供了一个干净的界面。结果对于未来 ALD 层在半导体制造工艺中铜和其他关键组件的封装中的应用至关重要。