9602544 Lieberman This project is a collaboration between the University of California-Berkeley group under the direction of Professor Michael A. Lieberman, and Australian National University group under the direction of Professor Rod Boswell on experiments, analytical modeling, and computer simulations of pulsed power high density plasma discharges used for materials processing, to obtain a better understanding of the dynamics of these discharges and their utility for various processing applications. The U.S. and Australian investigators will develop analytical models and computer simulations of such discharges and will perform experiments on high density pulsed power helicon discharges. High density sources, such as electron cyclotron resonance discharges (ECR's), inductively coupled plasmas (ICP's), and helicons are regarded as powerful tools that can replace conventional capacitively coupled, parallel plate plasma reactors. A major advantage is that much higher manufacturing throughput can be expected because much higher plasma densities than those of parallel plate reactors are obtainable. Another advantage is that aspect ratio-independent anisotropic etch processes are possible because of lower gas pressures. It is also a great advantage that the ion bombarding energy can be controlled independently of the ion flux. High density, low pressure plasma sources utilizing modulated power have been attracting much attention recently. By modulating the power, it is possible to further optimize and control the performance of processing plasmas by changing the pulse frequency and duty ratio.
