Plasma Electronics: Applications in Microelectronic Device Fabrication

Low temperature plasma has become a dry processing tool predictive of processes based on the plasma’s fundamental collision physics and surface chemistry, and more sophisticated plasma processes have been propagated for manufacturing ultra-large-scale integrated (ULSI) circuits and combined devices
of electronics and photonics in this decade. During the same period, new
applications of the plasma process have resulted in micro/nano fabrications
for devices associated with microanalysis, micro-reactors, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), based on the high potential for efficiency and
resource saving in the era of information communication technology and environmental society. This second edition reflects the fast progress in the quantitative understanding of the non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasma and
the surface processing and the progress in the predictive modeling of the
plasma and the process. Low-temperature plasma is otherwise known as a
collisional plasma, in contrast with a collisionless plasma. As expected from
the short-ranged collisional interaction, low-temperature plasma produces a
large amount of long-lived excited species and neutral radicals that express a
proper active function through the quantum characteristics peculiar to each
of the feed gas molecules, in addition to the classical spatiotemporal plasma
structure and function between electrons and positive (and negative) ions.
The low-temperature plasma process and the numerical predictive methods are compactly implemented in the form of 21 new figures, 18 new tables, 9
new problems, and 3 exercises in the second edition. We have added a chapter
about the development of atmospheric-pressure plasma, in particular, microcell plasma, with a discussion of its practical application to improve surface
efficiency, including the quantitative discussion of heat transfer and heating
of the media and the reactor. Sections about the phase transition between
the capacitive and inductive modes in an ICP, and about MOS-transistor and
MEMS fabrications have been newly included.