| Anode magnetron DC glow discharge is a new plasma process used in plasma cleaning and polymerization. The objective was to examine some fundamental factors involved in the design and construction of the anode magnetron DC glow discharge processes as well as its performance in plasma cleaning and polymerization.; The use of an anode magnetron glow discharge in plasma surface cleaning and polymerization has several advantages over nonmagnetron glow discharge. Those advantages include the capability of the magnetron to operate at low pressure, as well as decreasing the thickness of the cathode dark space, i.e., the negative glow which contains a higher concentration of ions and active species was closer to the cathode surface, which makes the plasma surface cleaning and polymerization an effective and uniform process. The overall mechanism is inferred from plasma diagnostics techniques (double Langmuir probe), AES, ESCA, and Ellipsometry analyses.; Comparison of non-magnetron, cathode magnetron and anode magnetron argon DC glow discharge show markedly different spatial distributions of T{dollar}sb{lcub}rm e{rcub}{dollar} and N{dollar}sb{lcub}rm e{rcub}{dollar}. In a case of anode magnetron DC glow discharge, the radial distributions of N{dollar}sb{lcub}rm e{rcub}{dollar} significantly peaked at the center of the radial position. Thus, this increase plasma cleaning uniformity, and can eliminate the edge effect, which will be very helpful in reducing the extent of etching nonuniformity.; The deposition rate at a given discharge power is increased by the presence of anode magnetrons, and is also much higher relative to RF and AF. The refractive index of DC plasma film at a given polymer thickness (such as TMS, 70 nm, RI: 2.4) is higher than RF, AF and cascade arc (RI: 1.6-1.7). |
