Microwave Plasma Processing for VLSI Technology

本文主要研究了微波放电在集成电路等离子体加工中的应用。这些实验使用了一种名为微波等离子体圆盘反应器的新型微波放电反应器。该反应器可以在10托以上到10托以下的任何气体中运行，由可调谐的圆柱形微波腔内的盘状微波放电组成，适用于多种不同的实验条件。研究包括三个主要任务：等离子体反应器表征、微波等离子体氧化实验和微波等离子体刻蚀实验。尽管用于这些实验的实验系统是相似的，但本研究使用了三个独立的实验装置：一个装置用于表征微波等离子体，一个独立的实验系统用于研究氧化，以及一个全新的装置用于研究微波等离子体刻蚀。

This research focuses on the application of microwave discharges to plasma processing of integrated circuits. The experiments make use of a new microwave discharge reactor called a microwave plasma disk reactor. The reactor, which can be operated from above 10 Torr to less than 10;i-;i3 Torr in any gas, consists of a disk-shaped microwave discharge inside a tuneable cylindrical microwave cavity and is adaptable to many different experimental conditions. The research consists of three major tasks: plasma reactor characterization; microwave plasma oxidation experiments; and microwave plasma etching experiments. Although the experimental systems employed for each of these are to be similar, the investigation makes use of three separate experimental setups: one setup to characterize the microwave plasma, a separate experimental system to investigate oxidation, and an entirely new setup to investigate microwave plasma etching.