NYI: Pulsed Discharge Processing

作者将研究与半导体工艺有关的脉冲辉光放电的动力学。脉冲放电和连续放电之间有几个重要的区别，这些区别尚未得到彻底的研究。首先，调制激发源使电子能量分布函数(EEDF)变得与时间有关。因此，即使时间平均EEDF很难连续控制，调制激励源也应该使其成为可能发光。作者将研究放电起始时的功率沉积机制以及放电衰减机制，以确定适当的调制激励源可用于优化特定过程的动力学。第二,负离子到表面的传输可以在脉冲放电中控制，并且可以用来研究负离子之间的相互作用与表面和颗粒的运输一样重要。最后，脉冲放电为反应离子刻蚀中的正离子能量控制提供了一种技术，因为直流自偏压是可控的。在这项研究过程中，作者将把等离子体状态测量和晶片状态测量相结合，并进行建模。

The author will study the kinetics of pulsed glow discharges related to semiconductor processing. There are several important differences between pulsed and continuous discharges which have yet to be thoroughly investigated. First, the modulated excitation source causes the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) to become time dependent. As a consequence, modulated excitation sources should make it possible to control the time averaged EEDF even though it is difficult to control in continuous glows. The author will study power deposition mechanisms at discharge initiation as well as discharge decay mechanisms in order to determine whether an appropriately modulated excitation source can be used to optimize the kinetics of a particular process. Second, the transport of negative ions to surfaces can be controlled in pulsed discharges and may allow for a study of the interactions of negative ions with surfaces as well as the transport of particulates. Finally, pulsed discharges offer a technique for positive ion energy control in reactive ion etching, since the dc self bias voltage can be controlled. The author will combine plasma state measurements with wafer state measurements, and modeling in the course of this research.