DISTRIBUTED ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON-RESONANCE PLASMA IMMERSION FOR LARGE-AREA ION-IMPLANTATION (INVITED)

Plasma-based ion implantation (PBII) is a recent method to implant ion s into materials for modifying surface properties. Negative high volta ge pulses are applied to the substrate to extract ions from the-plasma and accelerate them directly onto the substrate surface. The main adv antages of PBII over ion beam implantation are its simplicity for proc essing large surfaces or three-dimensional objects, and the possibilit y of preparing surfaces at low ion bombardment energy prior to the imp lantation process. However, in contrast to conventional ion implantati on, the PBII process does not apply mass selection. Due to the wide io n sheath expansion (a few tens of cm), large volumes of plasma are man datory around the substrate. Multipolar discharges, which produce a pe ripheral ionization facing the substrate and can be easily scaled up, are well adapted to the PBII process and thus widely used. However, ho t filaments to sustain plasmas of reactive gases in multipolar magneti c field structures are progressively phased out in favor of distribute d electron cyclotron resonance (DECR) plasma sources. The principle, t he design, and the performances of DECR plasmas are presented. Then, P BII in DECR plasmas is illustrated through two selected examples. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.