A Novel Plasma Tool for Large-Area Materials Processing

用于大面积材料加工的新型等离子工具

• 批准号: 0115570
• 负责人: Francis Chen
• 金额: $ 24.89万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-01-01 至 2005-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0115570&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Novel; Plasma; Tool; Large; Area

Radio-frequency (RF) produced plasmas are widely used in industry for materials processing, ranging from the hardening of airplane wings to the machining of microscopic features within CPU semiconductor chips. The proposed work addresses the difficult problem of uniform plasma processing of materials over an arbitrarily large surface area through the use of a distributed source: an array of smaller source elements, each covering a small portion of the surface. Proof of principle experiments have been successful; optimization studies will now be performed to determine the scaling design rules for plasma processing tools of ever increasing size. Feasibility studies of uniformity control of large-area plasma through control of the individual sources will be periDrmed by using feedback control of the RF power to each antenna. Spacing between adjacent elements within the array will be varied to determine its optimum value. Permanent magnets will be used to create the individual magnetic fields that can enhance the plasma density, and thus the plasma processing rate, from each tube in a controlled fashion. Further optimization studies of the individual source elements themselves will also be performed in order to increase their overall effectiveness in a distributed array.Successful results would be of tremendous benefit to chip manufacturers, and to other industries that use plasma processing as well. A desirable outcome of the proposed work would be a set of design rules for the construction of arbitrarily large plasma tools that maintain sufficient process uniformity to be of use in the ever growing plasma processing industry. Furthermore, the present use of highly toxic substances in wet chemical processing of large area material surfaces would be reduced, and perhaps eliminated, in favor of the relatively benign plasma processing tools developed as a result of this work.

射频（RF）产生的等离子体在工业中广泛用于材料加工，从飞机机翼的硬化到CPU半导体芯片内的微观特征的加工。 所提出的工作解决了通过使用分布式源在任意大的表面积上对材料进行均匀等离子体处理的难题：较小的源元件的阵列，每个元件覆盖表面的一小部分。 原理实验的证明是成功的，现在将进行优化研究，以确定不断增加的尺寸等离子体处理工具的缩放设计规则。通过控制单个源来控制大面积等离子体的均匀性的可行性研究将通过使用对每个天线的RF功率的反馈控制来进行。 阵列内相邻元件之间的间距将被改变以确定其最佳值。 永久磁铁将被用来创建单独的磁场，可以提高等离子体密度，从而等离子体处理速率，从每个管在一个控制的方式。 为了提高分布式阵列的整体效率，还将对单个源元件进行进一步的优化研究。成功的结果将对芯片制造商和其他使用等离子体处理的行业带来巨大的好处。 所提出的工作的一个理想的结果将是一组设计规则的任意大的等离子体工具，保持足够的工艺均匀性，以使用在不断增长的等离子体加工行业的建设。 此外，目前在大面积材料表面的湿化学处理中使用的高毒性物质将被减少，并且可能被消除，有利于作为这项工作的结果而开发的相对良性的等离子体处理工具。