High-pressure micro-discharges in etching and deposition applications

Abstract

High-pressure micro-discharges are promising sources of light, ions, and radicals and offer some advantages in materials processing applications as compared to other more conventional discharges. We review here results from etching experiments using stencil masks where the discharge is formed only in the pattern cutout. The mask consists of a thin metal-dielectric structure and is pressed against a Si wafer, which becomes part of the electric circuit. Pattern transfer takes place, albeit the profile shape appears to be limited by the expansion of the plasma into the etched hole at long etch times. We also review experiments on using micro-discharges as sources of radicals for materials deposition applications. In the latter case, the micro-discharges form in metal capillary tubes permitting incorporation of gas flow and a short reaction zone that can be controlled to favour production of specific radicals. We demonstrate these concepts by using CH 4 /H 2 chemistry for diamond deposition on a heated Mo substrate. Good quality micro-and nano-diamond crystals could be produced.

Study of residual stress-induced deformation of multilayer cantilever for maskless microplasma etching

“…These properties make microplasmas suitable for a wide range of materials applications, including the locally maskless material etching (Wilson and Gianchandani 2001;Sankaran and Giapis 2003;Ichiki et al 2004;Yoshiki 2007;Fricke et al 2011). However, most microplasma maskless etching configurations, such as microstructure electrode discharges (Wilson and Gianchandani 2001;Sankaran and Giapis 2003) and microplasma jets (Ichiki et al 2004;Yoshiki 2007;Fricke et al 2011), can only achieve etching resolution of a few 100 lm, which is far from the requirements of micro/nano fabrication. Recently, scanning probe microscopy (SPM)-based technology has become increasingly popular in the fabrication of nanoscale structures due to its low cost and great technical potential (Tseng et al 2005;Malshe et al 2010).…”

Deposition of silicon dioxide films using an atmospheric pressure microplasma jet

“…Moreover, the transport of reactive species from the plasma to the treated surface is complex because diffusion is slow and three-body recombination reactions are dominant. Few implementations of microplasma jets exist, [9][10][11] in which the fast convection assures the transport of reactive species to the film surface. SiO 2 deposition at atmospheric pressure has already been performed in a cold plasma torch 12 and in a plasma jet.…”

Local Area Deposition of SiOC Films by using a Very-high-frequency Atmospheric Pressure Microplasma Jet from Tetraethoxysilane

“…Silicon oxide films deposited from organic precursors by using various atmosphericpressure plasma jets have been extensively studied for the application as the functional coating to enhance the barrier property of polymer against gases or liquids (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Organic materials, such as teraethoxylsilane (TEOS: (C 2 H 5 O) 4 Si) and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO, (CH 3 ) 3 SiOSi(CH 3 ) 3 ) are widely used as the precursors for silicon oxide film deposition (6,7).…”