High Density Sources for Plasma Processing

9400849陈工业等离子在从涡轮叶片到薯片袋等各种产品的制造中正变得越来越重要。对美国经济尤为重要的是半导体芯片和平板显示器。目前的设备主要集中在RIE(反应离子刻蚀)工具上，RIE(反应离子刻蚀)几乎是通用的。近年来，设备制造商一直在评估新的等离子体源，这些源有可能产生更大、更均匀和更密集的等离子体，这可能会提高未来几代制造设备中的等离子体处理效率。其中一个新的来源是Helcon源，作者在NSF的赞助下帮助开发了它。Helcon源现在是工业上正在考虑的RIE排放的三大替代方案之一。然而，螺旋源的潜力还远未实现。本提案列出了十个项目(并非所有项目都能得到NSF的支持)，这些项目旨在为各种应用优化该设备，将其与竞争设备进行比较，并从总体上更好地了解工业等离子体的运行。虽然这些研究旨在为工业和美国的技术优势提供实用价值的结果，但它们具有基础性和科学性，因此不容易得到工业财团或国防部的支持。目标是长期的(几年而不是几个月)，我们希望这些目标属于NSF的任务范围。***

9400849 Chen Industrial plasmas are becoming increasingly important in the manufacturing of products ranging from turbine blades to potato chip bags. Particularly important to the U.S. economy are semiconductor chips and flat-panel displays. Present equipment is centered around the RIE (Reactive Ion Etching)tool, which is used almost universally. In recent years, equipment manufacturers have been evaluating new plasma sources with the potential to create larger, more uniform, and denser plasmas, which could improve the efficiency of plasma processing in future generations of manufacturing equipment. One of these new sources is the helicon source, which the author has helped develop under NSF sponsorship. The helicon source is now among the top three alternatives to the RIE discharge that are being considered in industry. However, the potential of the helicon source is far from being realized. The present proposal lists ten projects (not all of which can be supported by the NSF) which are intended to optimize this device for various applications, to compare it with competing devices, and to better understand the operation of industrial plasmas in general. Though these studies are meant to give results of practical utility to industry and the technological superiority of the U.S., they are fundamental and scientific in nature, and are therefore not easily supportable by industrial consortia or the Department of Defense. The objectives are long-term (years instead of months), and we hope that they lie within the mission of the NSF. ***