• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.504-509
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• 2011

The conducting current of non-uniform plasma immersed electrode consists of ion current and secondary electron emission current caused by the impinging ion current. The ion current is determined by the ion dose passing through the sheath in front of electrode and the ion distribution in front of the electrode plays an important role in the secondary electron emission. The investigation of the distributed plasma and secondary electron effect on electrode ion current was carried out as the stainless steel electrode plugged with quartz tube was immersed in the inductively coupled Ar plasma using the antenna powered by 1 kw and the density profile was measured. After that, the negative voltage was applied by 1 kV~6 kV to measure the conduction current for the analysis of ion current.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• 제56권12호
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• pp.2173-2178
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• 2007

Dynamics of plasma sheath was analyzed using simple ion fluid model with poison equation. Incident ion current, energy, potential distribution and space charge density profile were calculated as a function of time. The effects of initial floating sheath on the evolution of biased sheath were compared with ideal matrix sheath. The effects of finite rising time of pulse bias voltage on the ion current and energy was studied. The influence of surface charging on the evolution of sheath was also investigated

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권1호
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• pp.70-77
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• 2024

A low energy ion irradiation system based on the deuterium arc ion source with a high perveance of 1 µP for a single extraction aperture has been successfully developed for the investigation of ion irradiation on plasma-facing components including the first mirror of plasma optical diagnostics system. Under the optimum operating condition for mirror testing, the ion source has a beam energy of 200 eV and a current density of 3.7 mA/cm². The ion source comprises a magnetic cusp-type plasma source, an extraction system, a target system with a Faraday cup, and a power supply control system to ensure stable long time operation. Operation parameters of plasma source such as pressure, filament current, and arc power with D₂ discharge gas were optimized for beam extraction by measuring plasma parameters with a Langmuir probe. The diode electrode extraction system was designed by IGUN simulation to optimize for 1 µP perveance. It was successfully demonstrated that the ion beam current of ~4 mA can be extracted through the 10 mm aperture from the developed ion source. The target system with the Faraday cup is also developed to measure the beam current. With the assistance of the power control system, ion beams are extracted while maintaining a consistent arc power for more than 10 min of continuous operation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 대한전기학회 1994년도 하계학술대회 논문집 C
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• pp.1609-1611
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• 1994

In ECR and helicon reactors for plasma processing, a high density plasma is generated in a source region which is connected to a diffusion region where the processing takes place. Large density and potential gradients can develop at the orifice of the source which drive ion currents into the diffusion region. The average ion velocity may become the order of the sound velocity. Measurements of the ion saturation current to a Langmuir probe are used as a standard method of determining the plasma density in laboratory discharges. However, the analysis becomes difficult in a steaming plasma. We have used the HAMLET plasma simulator to simulate the ion flow to a large langmuir probe in an ECR plasma. The collection surface was aligned with the Held upstream, normal to the field, and downstream. ion trajectories through the electric and magnetic fields were calculated including ion-neutral collisions. We examines the ratio of ion current density to plasma density as a function of magnetic field and pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 한국진공학회 2012년도 제42회 동계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.523-523
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• 2012

As the wafer geometric requirements continuously complicated and minutes in tens of nanometers, the expectation of real-time add-on sensors for in-situ plasma process monitoring is rapidly increasing. Various industry applications, utilizing plasma impedance monitor (PIM) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), on etch end point detection, etch chemistry investigation, health monitoring, fault detection and classification, and advanced process control are good examples. However, process monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing industry requires non-invasiveness. The hypothesis behind the optical monitoring of plasma induced ion current is for the monitoring of plasma induced charging damage in non-invasive optical way. In plasma dielectric via etching, the bombardment of reactive ions on exposed conductor patterns may induce electrical current. Induced electrical charge can further flow down to device level, and accumulated charges in the consecutive plasma processes during back-end metallization can create plasma induced charging damage to shift the threshold voltage of device. As a preliminary research for the hypothesis, we performed two phases experiment to measure the plasma induced current in etch environmental condition. We fabricated electrical test circuits to convert induced current to flickering frequency of LED output, and the flickering frequency was measured by high speed optical plasma monitoring system (OPMS) in 10 kHz. Current-frequency calibration was done in offline by applying stepwise current increase while LED flickering was measured. Once the performance of the test circuits was evaluated, a metal pad for collecting ion bombardment during plasma etch condition was placed inside etch chamber, and the LED output frequency was measured in real-time. It was successful to acquire high speed optical emission data acquisition in 10 kHz. Offline measurement with the test circuitry was satisfactory, and we are continuously investigating the potential of real-time in-situ plasma induce current measurement via OPMS.

• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.45-56
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• 2003

A high flux metal plasma pulse ion source, which can simultaneously perform ion implantation and deposition, was developed and tested to evaluate its performance using the prototype. Flux of ion source was measured to be 5 A and bi-polar pulse power supply with a peak voltage of 250 V, repetition of 20 Hz and width of 100 ${\mu}\textrm{s}$ has an output current of 2 kA and average power of 2 kW. Trigger power supply is a high voltage pulse generator producing a peak voltage of 12 kV, peak current of 50 A and repetition rate of 20 Hz. The acceleration column for providing target energy up to ion implantation is carefully designed and compatible with UHV (ultra high vacuum) application. Prototype systems including various ion sources are fabricated for the performance test in the vacuum and evaluated to be more competitive than the existing equipments through repeated deposition experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.381-389
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• 1998

The time variation of an ion current density has been analyzed based on the plasma particle dynamic model for the plasma immersion ion implantation. The implanted ion current density has its maximum value at a particular time after sheath formation, and decays. The influence of the particle collisions, the capacitive time of the substrate, and the pulse formula has been represented on the implanted ion current.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 한국진공학회 2011년도 제41회 하계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.310-311
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• 2011

Dual-frequency (DF) capacitively coupled plasmas (CCP) are used to separately control the mean ion energy and flux at the electrodes [1]. This separate control in capacitively coupled radio frequency discharges is one of the most important issues for various applications of plasma processing. For instance, in the Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition processes such as used for solar cell manufacturing, this separate control is most relevant. It principally allows to increase the ion flux for high deposition rates, while the mean ion energy is kept constant at low values to prevent highly energetic ion bombardment of the substrate to avoid unwanted damage of the surface structure. DF CCP can be analyzed in a fashion similar to single-frequency (SF) driven with effective parameters [2]. It means that DF CCP can be converted into SF CCP with effective parameters such as effective frequency and effective current density. In this study, comparison of DF CCP and its converted effective SF CCP is carried out through particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo (PIC-MCC) simulations. The PIC-MCC simulation shows that DF CCP and its converted effective SF CCP have almost the same plasma characteristics. In DF CCP, the negative resistance arises from the competition of the effective current and the effective frequency [2]. As the high-frequency current increases, the square of the effective frequency increases more than the effective current does. As a result, the effective voltage decreases with the effective current and it leads to an increase of the ion flux and a decrease of the mean ion energy. Because of that, the negative resistance regime can be called the preferable regime for solar cell manufacturing. In this preferable regime, comparison of DF (13.56+100 or 200 MHz) CCP and SF (60 MHz) CCP with the same effective current density is carried out. At the lower effective current density (or at the lower plasma density), the mean ion energy of SF CCP is lower than that of DF CCP. At the higher effective current density (or at the higher plasma density), however, the mean ion energy is lower than that of SF CCP. In this case, using DF CCP is better than SF CCP for solar cell manufacturing processes.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.428-435
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• 2000

Negative ion generation in an inductively coupled oxygen plasma was investigated by using a Langmuir probe. It was observed that the probe current ratio of the positive ion saturation current and the negative current which is consisted of the electron current and the negative ion current, and also the potential difference between the floating potential and plasma potential vary with the RF input power and more sensitively with the operating pressure, respectively. Results show that the operating condition to achieve the maximum probe current ratio and the minimum potential difference shift from the low pressure region to the high pressure regions with increasing the input power. It implies that the generation of the negative oxygen ions increases and the recombination of the positive and negative ions are enhanced in the plasma.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• 제44권11호
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• pp.15-19
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• 2007

This paper reports the effects of Ar ion beam surface treatment on a $SiO_2$ dielectric layer in organic thin film transistors. We compared the electrical properties of pentacene-based OTFTs, treated by $O_2$ plasma or Ar ion beam treatments and characterized the states of the surface of the dielectric by using atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For the sample which received $O_2$ plasma treatment, the mobility increased significantly but the on/off current ratio was found very low. The Ar ion beam-treated sample showed a very high on/off current ratio as well as a moderately improved mobility. XPS data taken from the dielectric surfaces after each of treatments exhibit that the ratio of between Si-O bonds and O-Si-O bonds was much higher in the $O_2$ plasma treated surface than in the Ar ion beam treated surface. We believe that our surface treatment using an inert gas, Ar, carried out an effective surface cleaning while keeping surface damage very low, and also the improved device performances was achieved as a consequence of improved surface condition.