PLASMA PROCESSING

Low pressure, non-equilibrium, weakly to partially ionized gas dischar ge plasmas are used for a variety of surface materials processing appl ications. The most extensive applications are in microelectronics manu facturing, where plasma sputtering, etching, stripping, cleaning and f ilm deposition play key roles in this growing industry. Up to 30% of a ll process steps in integrated circuit manufacture involve low pressur e plasmas in one way or another. The rapid pace of process and product technological change in this industry, coupled with the unique capabi lities of plasma processing for extremely finely controlled surface mo dification, offers new opportunities to plasma scientists.