An essential element in chip manufacturing- Plasma

Plasma was first discovered by William Crookes in 1879 and named "plasma" by Irving Langmuir in 1929. The application of plasma in chip manufacturing is very common and important, it can be said that without plasma, chip production would not be possible. Plasma is almost always involved in dry etching, PVD, CVD, wafer surface modification and lithography.

What is plasma?

plasma is the fourth state of a substance. While most people are under the impression that matter has only three states (solid, liquid, and gas), more than 99% of the observable matter in the universe is in the fourth state, such as in stars, nebulae, and the interstellar medium, and plasma is also present on Earth, such as in the ionosphere and magnetosphere above Earth. Plasma consists of ionized gases containing roughly equal amounts of electrons and ions, produced by heating the gases to high temperatures, bombarding them with electrical discharges, or exposing them to ionizing radiation. Because plasmas are subject to forces from external electromagnetic fields or fields generated by currents and charges inside the plasma, their dynamics are quite different from those of ordinary gases.

What is ionization?

Gas ionization is the process of removing electrons from atoms or molecules in a gas. In gas ionization, external energies (such as electric fields, light radiation, or high temperatures) provide enough energy to cause electrons in gas molecules or atoms to break away from their atomic or molecular orbitals to form charged ions and free electrons. Gas ionization is the basis of plasma formation. Once ionization of a gas occurs, it leads to ionization of atoms or molecules and the creation of a large number of free electrons and ions, and when enough atoms are ionized to significantly affect the electrical properties of the gas, it becomes a plasma. The plasma responds and generates an electromagnetic force.

The composition of plasma

Plasma is a gaseous mixture of ions, electrons, free radicals, neutral atoms and molecules. The ions in a plasma are atoms or molecules with a positive or negative charge. They are formed by the loss or gain of one or more electrons in an atom or molecule. The type and number of ions depend on the composition of the plasma and how it is produced. Free electrons break away from atoms or molecules and become negatively charged particles. Free electrons have high energy and can move and conduct electricity in response to an electric field. In addition to free electrons and ions, there are also some neutral particles in the plasma, that is, atoms or molecules that have not been ionized. These neutral particles play a role in balancing ions and electrons in the plasma, maintaining the overall electric neutrality of the plasma. Free radicals are a class of chemicals with unpaired electrons that play an important role in chemical reactions and in living organisms. Free radicals are usually very reactive because they tend to pair electrons by trapping them or giving them away.

Properties of plasma

The properties of plasma are different from other states of matter such as gas, solid or liquid, with high conductivity, unique optical properties and plasma oscillations. First of all, it is an electrical conductor and can conduct current. This is because there are a large number of free electrons in the plasma, which can move under the action of an electric field and form an electric current. Secondly, plasma has a strong interaction with electromagnetic radiation and can emit, absorb and scatter light. In addition, plasma also has unique thermodynamic properties, such as high temperature, low pressure and high energy density.

Fountyl Technologies PTE Ltd, is focusing on semiconductor manufacturing industry, main products include: Pin chuck, porous ceramic chuck, ceramic end effector, ceramic square beam, ceramic spindle, welcome to contact and negotiation！