A plasma engraver uses plasma to create circuit paths on a silicon wafer by depositing or removing silicon dioxide. The plasma is created by superheating a gas containing oxygen or fluorine, and the process is controlled to create precise conductive paths for integrated circuits.
A plasma engraver is a device that uses plasma to create the circuit paths needed by semiconductor integrated circuits. The plasma engraver does this by emitting a precisely aimed jet of plasma onto a silicon wafer. When the plasma and wafer come into contact with each other, a chemical reaction occurs on the surface of the wafer. This reaction deposits silicon dioxide on the wafer, creating electrical pathways, or removes the silicon dioxide already present, leaving only the electrical pathways.
The plasma used by a plasma engraver is created by superheating a gas containing oxygen or fluorine, depending on whether silicon dioxide is to be removed or deposited. This is accomplished by first establishing a vacuum in the etch and generating a high frequency electromagnetic field. As the gas passes through the etch, the electromagnetic field excites the atoms in the gas, causing them to heat up.
As gas heats up, it breaks down into its basic component atoms. The extreme heat will also remove the outer electrons from some of the atoms, turning them into ions. By the time the gas leaves the plasma etch nozzle and reaches the wafer, it no longer exists as a gas but has become a very thin, superheated jet of ions called a plasma.
If an oxygen-containing gas is used to create the plasma, it will react with the silicon on the wafer, creating silicon dioxide, an electrically conductive material. When the plasma jet passes over the wafer surface in a precisely controlled manner, a very thin film-like layer of silicon dioxide forms on its surface. When the etching process is complete, the silicon wafer will have a precise set of trace amounts of silicon dioxide through it. These traces will serve as conductive paths between the components of an integrated circuit.
Plasma engravers can also remove material from wafers. When creating integrated circuits, there are cases where a given device may require more wafer surface area to be silicon dioxide. In this case, it is faster and cheaper to place a material-coated wafer into the plasma etch and remove unnecessary silicon dioxide.
To do this, the engraver uses a fluorine-based gas to create his plasma. When the fluorine plasma contacts the silicon dioxide coating the wafer, the silicon dioxide is destroyed in a chemical reaction. Once the engraver has completed his work, only the silicon dioxide vias needed by the integrated circuit remain.
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