Pathfinder: Using simulations to reduce industrial costs and the environmental consequences of plasma etching

探路者：利用模拟降低等离子蚀刻的工业成本和环境后果

• 批准号: NE/H014039/1
• 负责人: Jonathan Tennyson
• 金额: $ 0.97万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FH014039%2F1
• 关键词: Pathfinder; Using; simulations; reduce; industrial

The etching of silicon wafers using gaseous plasmas underpins the rapid advance in computer technology that has powered the global economy in recent years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Currently, experimental testing is used to establish the relevant plasma mixes to generate the desired etch. Such testing is an expensive and time consuming process even for the relatively minor improvements in the processes required to drive the continued advance of the technology, whilst a radical change in the (feedstock) gas used to seed the plasma is extremely costly. In addition the silicon etching process accounts for significant emissions of gases such as SF6 and CF4 which have a global warming potential (GWP) many thousand times that of CO2. Innovations which can reduce emissions, such as by reducing the need for experimental testing, have clear cost, environmental and social benefits. The business concept is to develop a state of the art plasma simulation package which will determine the appropriate plasma mixes and parameters (or at the very least will negatively evaluate potential plasmas, thereby saving £100ks of industrial testing costs) using fundamental data generated from fully quantum mechanical calculations using methods developed at UCL. The current proposal is for some seedcorn funding to determine the size of the market and to develop an appropriate business model.

使用气体等离子体蚀刻硅晶片支撑了计算机技术的快速发展，该技术近年来为全球经济提供了动力，并将在可预见的未来继续这样做。目前，实验测试用于建立相关的等离子体混合物以产生期望的蚀刻。这种测试是昂贵且耗时的过程，即使对于驱动技术的持续进步所需的过程中的相对较小的改进也是如此，而用于接种等离子体的（原料）气体的根本改变是极其昂贵的。此外，硅蚀刻工艺导致了诸如SF6和CF4的气体的大量排放，这些气体具有CO2的数千倍的全球变暖潜能值（GWP）。可以减少排放的创新，例如减少实验测试的需要，具有明显的成本，环境和社会效益。业务概念是开发一个最先进的等离子体模拟包，它将使用UCL开发的方法从完全量子力学计算中生成的基本数据来确定适当的等离子体混合物和参数（或者至少会对潜在的等离子体进行负面评估，从而节省10万英镑的工业测试成本）。目前的提议是提供一些种子资金，以确定市场规模并开发适当的商业模式。