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Why plasma processing research?
Research in the Graves group focuses on the fundamentals and applications of weakly to partially ionized gases, or plasmas, to technological problems, primarily in the microelectronics industry. These plasmas operate at relatively low gas temperatures - around room temperature - and are therefore quite different from the hot, usually strongly magnetized plasmas in stars or that are used in thermonuclear fusion and weapons applications. The key problems in this field are related to the coupling of the chemically reactive neutral gas and electrons and ions that make up the plasma. This is especially true at surfaces exposed to the plasma. Indeed the primary applications of interest to the Graves group are related to interactions between the plasma and its bounding surfaces.
In
microelectronics, optoelectronics, flat panel display manufacture and related
industries, low temperature plasmas are used widely for a variety of surface
treatments, including etching and deposition of thin films, surface cleaning,
and photoresist stripping and dry development. The gas discharge plasmas
act as a chemical reactor in many ways, with flow in and out, and a variety
of chemical reactions occurring in the low pressure chamber (typically
between a millitorr and 1 torr). Hence many of the traditional chemical
reactor engineering issues familiar to chemical engineers in the chemical
processing industries have close analogs in this field. For example, design
of plasma reactors, optimization of reactor performance and process control
are all very important current areas of active research in this field.
Specific current areas of research are described under About
the Lab, but in general, the Graves group has historically been interested
in modeling and simulation, as well as experimental studies of plasma processing.
We
view this field of research as one of the exciting new directions in chemical
engineering, combining many of the traditional approaches and perspectives
in chemical engineering with arguably the fastest growing chemical processing
industry in the history of the world. Worldwide, sales of semiconductors
reached about $150 billion in 1997. Projections are that this market will
double by the end of the decade, with at least double digit annual growth
rates into the following decade. Manufacturing issues are now at least
as important as design of circuits and devices in the industry in determining
profitability. Large scale industrial chemical processing is the domain
of the chemical engineer, and this industry offers many new opportunities
for the chemical engineering profession to grow along with the industry.