| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session PS-TuP |
| Session: | Plasma Science and Technology Poster Session |
| Presenter: | S. Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Authors: | S. Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison S. Banna, Applied Materials Inc. Y. Nishi, Stanford University J.L. Shohet, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Neutral Loop Discharge (NLD) plasmas are being investigated as a new plasma source to produce good directionality and high fluxes of ion bombardment at substrate surface1) for semiconductor device fabrication. In an NLD plasma reactor, a Neutral Loop (NL) can be produced (zero-field path) that is generated by cusp-shaped magnetic field from direct current magnets. It has been shown theoretically that magnetic reconnection occurs in the neutral loop region when radio-frequency fields are applied2). During the reconnection process, the DC magnetic field and the r.f. magnetic field cause disconnection and reconnection of the magnetic-field lines over an r.f. period. The reconnection results in the potential to heat electrons stochastically on the NL. Changing the position and the diameter of the NL can modify processing uniformity over a large area and thus improves plasma processing without need to move or rotate the workpiece. However, to confirm this, the details of plasma parameters as a function of position of the NL are produced by numerical simulations of electron motions near the NL in the presence of an r.f. The relationship between the r.f. magnetic field and its corresponding electric field and the average electron energy is also investigated.
This Work was supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under Contact No. 2012-KJ-2359 and the National Science Foundation under Grant CBET-1066231.
[1] T. Uchida and S. Hamaguchi., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 41 (2008) 083001
[2] Z. Yoshida et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 2458.