Coulomb interactions between dust particles in plasma etching reactors
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Wafer contamination by particles, or dust, in plasma processing reactors remains a continuing concern in the microelectronics industry. Particles charge negatively in low temperature plasmas and resemble electrically floating bodies. The transport of these particles in plasma processing reactors is dominated by electrostatic, ion-drag, fluid-drag, and thermophoretic forces. Under conditions where the particle density is large, Debye shielding may be insufficient to isolate the particles, leading to particle-particle Coulomb interactions. Such interactions are likely to occur in trapping locations, which are typically near the plasma-sheath boundaries in Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) discharges. Particles that experience Coulomb interactions may display collective behavior, an extreme example being a Coulomb liquid or solid. Particle transport in plasma processing reactors has been studied extensively to predict rates of wafer contamination thought to date particle-particle interactions have not been addressed. In this paper, the authors discuss results from a computer model for dust particle transport in RIE discharges where particle-particle Coulomb interactions are included.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States); Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 435494
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960634--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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