Advances in Low Temperature RF Plasmas: Basis for Process Design

Low temperature plasmas have had a very broad range of applications ever since their discovery. However, recent developments in the dextrous handling of dry etching non-equilibrium plasma have attracted a great common interest that has driving force behind the major developments in diagnostic, theoretical and numerical techniques since the 1980s. A greater fundamental understanding of the kinetics of radio-frequency (rf) plasmas and their interaction with surfaces in regard to the process of large scale integrated circuits has been achieved through the cooperation between academia and industry. At the same time, new applications have become possible, and the basic understanding of low temperature rf plasmas has diffused to other areas of plasma physics. Each chapter of this book is edited in the same form as the article collected in the special issue of "Applied Surface Science", which is published in memory of the International Workshop on Basis for Low Temperature Plasma Applications at Hakone in Japan on July 24 - 25 of 2001. The basic goal in the selection of topics was to cover the range of issues that represent the building blocks of the complex, "vertically integrated" plasma simulation schemes including surface processes. The text also shows examples of integrated codes and how they are implemented in the development of new strategies of plasma processing. Such codes may be used both in modern experiments and in the computer aided design and control of the plasma devices of the next generation. These are based on the transport theory of electrons, ions and neutrals, as well as on numerical modellings and on the available collision and transport data describing gas and surface phases. The work also covers some aspects of simulation and modeling aimed at higher density plasmas. All the chapters present a relatively complete review of the developments in these fields since the 1980s as well as a review of their status of development in 2002, and there is a blend of research reviews from both academia and industry.

Table of Contents:
Kinetic phenomena in electron transport in radio frequency fields, Z.Lj. Petrovic, Z.M. Raspopovic, S. Dujko, T. Makabe; Development of swarm transport theory in radi-frequency electric and crossed electric and magnetic fields, R.D. White, K.F. Ness, R.E. Robson; Temporal and spatial relaxation in low temperature plasmas, R. Winkler, D. Loffhagen, F. Sigeneger; Surface chemistry associated with plasma etching processes, D.G. Graves, D. Humbird; Development of optical coputerised tomography in CCP and ICP for plasma etching, T. Makabe, Z.Lj. Petrovic; Negative ions in processing plasmas and their effect on the plasma structure, A. Kono; Measurement techniques of radicals, their gas phase and surface reactions in reactive plasma processing, M.Hori, T. Goto; Spatially resolved CF, CF2, SiF and SiF2 densities in fluorocarbon containing inductively driven discharges, G.A. Hebner; Vertically integrated computer aided design for device processing, T. Makabe, K. Maeshige; Application and simulation of low temperature plasma processes in semiconductor manufacturing, P.L.G. Ventzek, S. Rauf, P.J. Stout, D. Zhang, W. Dauksher, E. Hall; Development of high-density plasma reactor for high-performance processing and future prospects, S. Samukawa; Recent progress in the understanding of electron kinetics in low-pressure inductive plasmas, U. Kortshagen, A. Maresca, K. Orlov, B. Heil; Modelling of magnetron sputtering plasmas, C.H. Shon, J. K. Lee; Dielectric film etching in semiconductor device manufacturing - Development of SiO2 etching and the next generation plasma reactor, M. Sekine; Efficiency of ac display panels from diagnostics and models, R. Ganter, Th. Callegari, L.C. Pitchford, J.P. Boeuf; Electron interactions with plasma processing gases - Present status and future needs, L.G. Christophorou, J.K. Olthoff; Database in low temperature plasma modelling (Y. Sakai.