Research Opportunities for Women: Characterizavion of a Research RF Parallel Plate Reactor

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Plasmas have become important in materials processing because they can provide a highly chemically reactive environment while remaining at relatively low overall gas temperatures. One of the more common industrial reactors consists of radio frequency (RF) power capacitively coupled to two parallel plate electrodes. The material to be processed is placed on one of the electrodes and the plasma generated in the fill gas provides the free radicals, ions and energetic neutrals needed for the particular chemical process. With this Career Advancement Award, the PI will design and construct a "standard" RF reference parallel plate reactor with maximum capability for diagnostics as well as certain characteristics desirable for modeling. Specifically, the reactor will have the following properties - RF power (capacitively coupled) 0 - 500 Watts - RF Frequency 13.56 MHz - Electrode Spacing 2.54 cm - argon 99.999% - Gas flow 2 - 20 sccm - Gas pressure 0.1 -1.0 Torr The diagnostics she plans to measure include: (1) the first five harmonics, magnitude and phase of the voltage and current at both electrodes, (2) spatial and temporal measurements of the visible optical emission, (3) spatial measurements of eletron temperature and density, and (4) spatial measurements of the electron energy distribution function. The results of these measurements will be compared to measurements taken on another reactor on the University of Michigan campus. Once the standard reactor is fully characterized, it will be used as for comparison in the modeling and experimental study and analysis of industrial reactors. The grant will advance the career of the PI by providing her initial experience in a new line of research on which future projects can be based.