SIMULTANEOUS PLASMA ETCHING AND POLYMERIZATION - SIMPLE DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES.

Abstract

Polymerization and etching processes always compete at all surfaces in contact with fluorocarbon plasmas. The degree to which one process dominates over the other differs greatly depending on many discharge parameters and the particular gas/solid chemical systems under consideration. However, work in many laboratories has shown that certain simplifying concepts can be of tremendous value in predicting reliably overall trends as one moves in this very large parameter space. Based on this premise, a good deal of progress can be made by using conventional diagnostic techniques to monitor a few key plasma processes relating plasma-surface interactions. A few examples of this approach will be outlined in this paper.