Non-vacuum processing—Openair-Plasma® unleashes new potential for the manufacture of semiconductors
Silicon wafers, chips, and high-performance semiconductors are highly sensitive electronic components. As these technologies have developed, so has low-pressure plasma technology as a manufacturing process.
The enhancement of the Openair-Plasma® process under atmospheric pressure opens up entirely new possibilities, in particular for automation. A vacuum is no longer required for plasma treatment, so process flows can be greatly simplified.
Nano-Plasma Cleaning of Silicon Wafers
Wafer manufacturing begins with a block of semiconductor material. This is sliced (sawed) into wafers, which are then polished in a chemical/mechanical process until the required surface roughness of a few nanometers is achieved. In the next step, Openair-Plasma® is used as a highly efficient and simple procedure for super-fine cleaning of these nano-structures. One hundred percent of carbohydrates and particles are removed and error rates can be significantly reduced using this Openair-Plasma® cleaning.
