Metrology for in-situ industrial plasma processing

低温等离子体（LTP）已经使从用于电子计算机和移动的电话芯片的纳米电子技术、航天器推进到外科手术设备的各种技术成为可能。“冷”等离子体是弱电离的，远离热力学平衡;电子是热的（即~ 10，000度），而较重的离子和中性粒子（主要成分）接近室温。这些等离子体有效地产生活性物质，特别是自由基，例如原子，其在表面相互作用中起关键作用。LTP广泛用于半导体制造以制造集成电路，并且使得摩尔定律得以延续。晶体管封装密度的增加赋予了更大的计算能力，但关键尺寸已经达到了原子尺度。再加上硅芯片的蚀刻对等离子体参数的变化高度敏感，蚀刻特征的最小偏差都会对处理器的性能产生重大影响。晶圆批次之间的重复生产对于提高质量和效率也至关重要。因此，为了更好地设计和控制等离子体表面相互作用，这些物种的动力学知识是重要的。探测等离子体表面界面的传感器对于这些处理应用的设计策略至关重要。该项目将建立在一个不断发展的传感器设计概念的基础上，该概念旨在提供与其他诊断技术（如双光子吸收激光诱导荧光（TALIF）和能量分辨光化术（ERA））相当的信息。然而，这些后一种技术在实验上是复杂的，并且在工业环境中采用是昂贵的。因此，开发这种简单的非侵入式传感器，可以收集处理室内的信息，对于实时过程控制至关重要。将研究处理应用中常见的等离子体操作条件，即分子电负性气体，例如氢气和氧气。

Low-temperature plasmas (LTPs) already enable diverse technologies ranging from nano-electronics for electronic computer and mobile phone chips, spacecraft propulsion tosurgical devices. 'Cold' plasmas are weakly ionised and far from thermodynamic equilibrium; the electrons are hot (i.e. ~ 10,000 degrees), while the heavier ions and neutrals (dominant component) are close to room temperature. These plasmas efficiently produce reactive species, particularly free radicals e.g. atoms, that play a crucial role in surface interactions.LTPs are extensively used in semiconductor manufacturing to create Integrated Circuits, and has enabled the continuation of Moore's law. Increased packing density of transistors grant more computing power, but critical dimensions have reached the atomic scale. Compounded by the fact that the etching of silicon chips are highly sensitive to changes in plasma parameters, the slightest deviation in etched features will have a significant impact on the performance of processors. Reproducibility between wafer batches is also essential to improve quality and efficiency. Thus, in order to better design and control the plasma-surface interaction, knowledge of the dynamics of these species is important. Sensors that probe the plasma-surface interface are critical to feed into design strategies for these processing applications.The project will build on a developing sensor design concept that aims to provide information comparable to that of other diagnostic techniques, such as Two-photon Absorption Laser Induced Fluorescence (TALIF) and Energy Resolved Actinometry (ERA). However, these latter techniques are experimentally complex and expensive to adopt in an industrial setting. Thus, development of this simple, non-invasive sensor that can gather information inside the processing chamber is critical for real-time process control. Plasma operating conditions common to processing applications will be investigated, namely molecular electro-negative gases e.g. hydrogen and oxygen.