Plasma etching chemical models

In practical applications, gas-surface etching reactions are carried out in plasma reactors over the approximate pressure range 10 -1 Torr, and deposition reactions are carried out by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV below 10 Torr) or by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) in the approximate range 10 -10 Torr. These applied processes can be quite complex, and key individual reaction rate constants are needed as input for modelling and simulation studies—and ultimately for optimization—of the overall processes. 

Chemical and chemical engineering principles involved in plasma-enhanced etching and deposition are reviewed, modeling approaches to describe and predict plasma behavior are indicated, and specific examples of plasma-enhanced etching and deposition of thin-film materials of interest to the fabrication of microelectronic and optical devices are discussed. 

In the case of the n-heptyl viologen deposition, nucleation rates of the first molecular layers of this molecule control the deposition rates of subsequent layers. The nucleation reaction follows the instantaneous nucleation model — and is found to be highly sensitive to the chemical and physical nature of the electrode surface prior to deposition. RF-plasma of ion-beam etched surfaces generally show greatly enhanced nucleation and bulk deposition rates. 

Numerical Model of Plasma-Chemical Etching of Silicon in CF4JH2 Plasma... 

Keywords Mathematical modeling Numerical methods Plasma-chemical etching technology Multicomponent gas mixtures... 

The calculations were carried with using 2D mathematical model of plasma-chemical etching reactor [2] in which a special attention gives to the multicomponent chemical kinetics of gas-phase reactions. 

The created adequate numerical model of reactor process allows to investigate subtle physical effects of plasma-chemical etching. 

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