Plasma discharges are widely used in the semiconductor industry for etching and deposition processes; moreover, their use has become critical for very large scale integrated circuit (VLSI) production. Inductively coupled plasma sources and other high density plasma sources will play in increasing role in processing as feature sizes shrink. U.S. equipment manufacturers are playing a leading role in developing inductive discharges, with the first commercial product released in summer, 1992. This work is for research on inductive r.f. discharges and their application to thin film materials processing. The program involves (a) the development of self-consistent analytical models and measurements for low pressure, high-density inductively coupled plasma sources; and (b) the development of analytical models and measurements for determining the uniformity properties of inductively driven r.f. source plasmas injected into materials processing reactor chambers. Etching (dry pattern transfer) of surface imaged photoresists using oxygen plasma discharges will be applied to characterize the materials processing capabilities of the inductive source.
