Modeling Plasma Processes in Materials Processing

Mark Kushner
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois

Plasma materials processing is now an indispensable step in the production of a wide variety of products ranging from microprocessors to automobile bumpers. Nowhere is plasma processing more critical than in the fabrication of microelectronics components. The submicron features of these devices can only be economically produced using plasmas. In spite of their critical roles, the development of plasma processes and reactors has until recently been empirical. This condition has largely resulted from the lack of CAD tools which have sufficient physics and dimensionality to be relevant. Fortunately, this situation is rapidly being corrected with the availability of high performance computers. This speaker discussed the status of computer simulations of plasma materials processing in the context of plasma equipment design. The requirements for plasma equipment CAD tools were presented and their modeling techniques were surveyed. Examples were drawn from Direct Monte Carlo Simulations of low pressure Knudsen flow, molecular dynamics modeling of surface processes during Si etching, and from the speaker's own works on the modeling of plasma etching reactors.