Date:
8:30am-4:30pm, Monday, May 22, 2023, Sheraton Albuquerque Airport Hotel, Albuquerque, NM
Course Objectives:
- Understand the radio frequency (RF) plasma system as an electronic circuit.
- Learn a systematic approach to viewing a RF plasma system.
- Know techniques for maintaining and troubleshooting RF systems.
Course Description
This introductory course provides maintenance and equipment engineers and technicians with a basic working knowledge of RF technology as it is applied to semiconductor processing equipment.
The role of RF in the various plasma processes, including sputter deposition and etching systems, is discussed. The characteristics and uses of various components that make up an RF system are described. The differences between resistive and reactive components are explained as well as the differences between series and parallel resonance.
The course covers the operation of RF generators, coaxial cables, matching networks, filter circuits, and the plasma chamber itself. The use of inductive versus capacitive coupling of RF power into the plasma discharge is reviewed as well as methods for measuring target and substrate voltages and their relation to ion energies. Basic and practical troubleshooting techniques are discussed.
Who Should Attend?
Engineers and equipment technicians who use RF power in vacuum systems and require a working knowledge of RF fundamentals.
Instructor: John Caughman
John Caughman is on the research staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the RF and Plasma Technology Group. He received his doctorate in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1989. He has extensive experience in developing and implementing RF diagnostic techniques for fingerprinting the RF systems used in micro-electronics fabrication. Current areas of research include RF power deposition in process plasmas (capacitively and/or inductively coupled) and the use of high-density plasmas for plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a variety of materials.
Course Materials:
Course Notes