GOALI: In-Situ Plasma Cleaning of Optics: Building a Fundamental Understanding of the Etch Process in a Complex Plasma Environment

目标：光学器件的原位等离子体清洗：建立对复杂等离子体环境中蚀刻过程的基本了解

• 批准号: 1436081
• 负责人: David Ruzic
• 金额: $ 28.72万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1436081&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GOALI; Situ; Plasma; Cleaning; Optics

Extreme-Ultraviolet (EUV) light holds strong promise as a light source for producing tomorrow's complex and compact integrated circuits. Unfortunately, practical economic use is currently precluded by low cost-efficiency for high volume manufacturing. The EUV source uses tin (Sn) droplets to produce the 13.5nm light, which is collected and transmitted into a scanner by collector optics. Sn deposits on the collector surface and degrades the EUV reflectivity. Cleaning Sn using hydrogen radicals is a potential solution. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award supports the Applied Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign to perform basic research in collaboration with its industrial partners to advance the fundamental understanding of the underlying physics and chemistry of Sn etch process using hydrogen radicals. This research will prove to be a milestone in the success of the next generation chip manufacturing process, which will enable a cost effective implementation of the technology to print smarter chips and eventually improve the speed and performance of electronic devices. An overarching goal of this research is the integration of research findings into academic courses, student involvement with industry, and attracting young scientists into the vast field of plasma engineering.This project is a hypothesis-driven, theoretical and experimental study of Sn cleaning from optics in a complex plasma environment. It focuses on fundamental understanding of reactive particle formation in hydrogen plasma, its arrival and interaction with surfaces, adsorption mechanisms, bond formation with the surface to be etched, and then finally the formation and desorption of product molecules under the EUV source operating environment. The team will perform a thorough computational analysis of the dependencies of hydrogen plasma conditions and etch rate. Etching experiments will be run to validate the etch rates predicted by the models. Collaborative industrial partners will help by providing necessary equipment, metrologies and the plasma source to advance this research. The research will answer fundamental questions in the field of plasma material interaction, surface science, plasma processing and etching.

极紫外光（EUV）光作为一种光源，有望用于生产未来复杂而紧凑的集成电路。不幸的是，目前由于大批量生产的低成本效率，实际的经济应用被排除在外。EUV光源使用锡（Sn）液滴产生13.5nm的光，通过集热器光学收集并传输到扫描仪中。锡沉积在集热器表面，降低了EUV反射率。利用氢自由基清洗锡是一种潜在的解决方案。这项与工业界学术联络的资助机会（GOALI）奖支持伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳香槟分校应用研究所与其工业合作伙伴合作开展基础研究，以促进对氢自由基锡蚀刻过程的潜在物理和化学的基本理解。这项研究将被证明是下一代芯片制造工艺成功的一个里程碑，这将使该技术以经济有效的方式实现打印更智能的芯片，并最终提高电子设备的速度和性能。这项研究的首要目标是将研究成果整合到学术课程中，让学生参与到行业中，并吸引年轻科学家进入等离子体工程的广阔领域。这个项目是一个假设驱动的，理论和实验研究在复杂的等离子体环境中从光学中去除锡。重点介绍了在EUV源操作环境下，氢等离子体中反应性粒子的形成，其到达和与表面的相互作用，吸附机制，与待蚀刻表面的键形成，最后是产物分子的形成和解吸。该团队将对氢等离子体条件和蚀刻速率的依赖性进行彻底的计算分析。蚀刻实验将用于验证模型预测的蚀刻速率。合作的工业伙伴将通过提供必要的设备、计量和等离子体源来帮助推进这项研究。该研究将回答等离子体材料相互作用、表面科学、等离子体加工和蚀刻等领域的基本问题。