IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Plasma Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuP

Paper PS-TuP28
Characteristics of Capillary Electrode Atmospheric Pressure Glow Discharge and Its Application to Glass Substrate Cleaning

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Plasma Deposition, Modeling, and Emerging Applications Poster Session
Presenter: Y.H. Lee, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
Authors: Y.H. Lee, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
C.H. Yi, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
M.J. Chung, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
G.Y. Yeom, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
In this study, the characteristics of atmospheric low temperature plasmas generated by capillary electrodes were investigated for the application of the TFT-LCD glass substrate cleaning process. The characteristics of the plasmas were studied as a function of capillary aspect ratios, input power, electrode distance, the gas mixtures of He, O@sub 2@, Ar, and N@sub 2@, etc. using a high voltage probe, a current probe, Quadrupole Mass Spectroscopy (QMS), and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The voltage between the electrodes increased with the increase of input power, the increase of electrode distance, the decrease of He flow rate, and the increase of O@sub 2@ flow rate. The increase of the voltage has led to unstable filamentary discharge from the stable capillary discharge. The use of capillary electrode instead of dielectric barrier electrode (the electrode covered with a non-capillary dielectric) not only decreased the electrode voltage, therefore, increased the stability of the plasma but also increased the discharge current and, therefore, the intensity of the plasma. Increased ionization and dissociation of the plasma species could be observed by OES with the increase of input power in He/O@sub 2@ mixtures. However, with the increase of O@sub 2@ flow rate in a constant He flow rate, the emission peaks from He decreased due to the increased electron consumption by oxygen while the emission peaks from O@sub 2@@super +@ and O increased due to the increased ionization and dissociation rates with the increase of oxygen concentration in the He/O@sub 2@ gas mixtures. Also, using He/O@sub 2@ gas mixtures, organic materials such as photoresist on the glass substrate could be successfully removed with the average etch rates higher than 570 nm/min.