Plasma etching and plasma physics experiments for the undergraduate microelectronics course

Many universities offer lecture/laboratory courses on the processing of microelectronic circuits; these courses are designed to introduce electrical or chemical engineering students to the fundamentals of integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. Given the nearly universal adoption of plasma processing by the IC industry, experiments with plasmas are a necessary addition to this type of course. In this paper, a modified microelectronics laboratory sequence is described which incorporates two new experiments. In the first experiment, students study the fundamental nature of plasmas used for materials processing. This is followed by a second experiment designed to investigate the effects of plasma reactor parameters on the resulting etch. These experiments can be performed on minimally modified industrial-type plasma etching reactors. The experiments described may be easily implemented at universities with a microelectronics fabrication program or course, and may also be applicable for training in an industrial setting. The goal of these two experiments is to give the student preparing for employment in an IC fabrication environment broad exposure to the fundamental physics of low-pressure plasmas, in addition to some knowledge of the impact of reactor settings on the quality of the resulting etch.