| Plasma processing is the mainstay of semiconductor materials processing. As critical dimension sizes shrink to the submicron level, stricter control of the plasma process is required.; This work will show that slight changes in operating conditions, including reactor materials, gas composition, electrical system performance, monitoring system performance and many others both known and unknown, alter the plasma significantly. During development of an endpoint system, one source of plasma noise was overcome by real-time smoothing of acquired data. Plasma induced emission was found to be sensitive to {dollar}<{dollar}0.5 mTorr pressure changes. Using this technique, fluctuations due to failing single stage regulators were isolated and eliminated by a novel solution.; To address these issues a reference system was designed for comparison of plasma parameters. The results of V-I and spatially resolved optical emission measurements are discussed. Enhanced emission was seen between the cathode and dark shield under certain conditions. This indicates probable current flow pathways. From photographs of the plasmas, the sheath thickness was found to be inversely proportional to the root of the pressure.; Optical emission spectroscopy and electrical probes were used to investigate microwave resonant cavity discharges in air. A self-consistent model of a coaxial cavity air discharge is presented. The model used measured parameters such as power, plasma diameter and length, and radial electric field strength at the cavity wall as input. The density, collision frequency and conductivity of overdense air plasmas were determined. Statistical temperatures were determined and compared with a gas temperature model. Spatially resolved optical emission shows enhancement near the containment tube walls at low pressure and high power.; A hybrid system consisting of an ECR microwave discharge cavity mounted on an rf parallel plate system was analyzed for radical trends with process parameters. Increased production of fluorine by a factor of 60 was achieved with such a system over the conventional rf-only system. An error in the actinometric technique used to measure F trends was encountered and corrected for, thus producing expected results. |
