Equipment and Services

All of the Plasma Dynamics equipment is located in a 1,200 square foot, Class 10,000 clean room. Below, you will find a listing of the equipment that either fills this space, or is available for use.

The Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) and Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) tools mentioned here can process wafers with diameters up to 300 mm. For pre-/post-examination of etched and deposited samples, Plasma Dynamics also has on-site access to optical and digital microscopes, an Amray 3600 field emission SEM, and Alfa-Step 200 surface profiling equipment.

Reactive Ion Etching

RIE Input gases

CF4 - Carbon tetrafluoride (Freon 14)
CHF3 - Trifluoromethane (Freon 23)
SF6 - Sulfur hexafluoride
CBrF3 - Bromotrifluoromethane (Halon 1301)
N2O - Nitrous oxide
CH4 - Methane
H2 - Hydrogen
O2 - Oxygen
Ar - Argon
He - Helium
Technics RIE
Technics RIE

The Trion system listed below is equipped with an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) source. For RIE, an ICP source gives improved etch rates, profile control, uniformity, and selectivity. For PECVD, ICP results in lower deposition temperatures and higher density films. The list and table here give the details of our RIE equipment and input gases, respectively.

  • Trion Minilock II with Loadlock and ICP
    • Input gases: CF4, O2, SF6, CHF3, He, Ar, CH4, and H2
    • Maximum wafer diameter: 200 mm (including parts and individual die)
  • Technics RIE
    • Input gases: CF4, Ar, O2, and CHF3
    • Maximum wafer diameter: 300 mm

Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

PECVD Input gases

NH3 - Ammonia
SiH4/N2 - 5% silane in nitrogen
N2O - Nitrous oxide
O2 - Oxygen
N2 - Nitrogen
Ar - Argon
CF4 - Carbon tetrafluoride (Freon 14)
(CH3)3SiH - Trimethylsilane (Z3MS)
Trion Equipment
Trion Etch and Deposition Tools

Here are the systems Plasma Dynamics uses for PECVD, as well a table of input gases. Please note that the last two systems in the list can etch a wide variety of wafer sizes and parts.

  • Trion Orion II PECVD with Loadlock and ICP
    • Configured for deposition of SiO2 and Si3N4
    • Maximum wafer diameter: 200 mm (including parts and individual die)
  • Anatech 600 plasma etcher
    • Etches in O2 and CF4
  • Drytek MS-6 plasma etcher
    • Etches in O2 only

Scanning Electron Microscopy

The company has onsite access to an Amray 3600 field emission microscope (provided by PVD Products, Inc.) and offsite use of an additional Amray (provided by Microvision Laboratories, Inc.) for pre- and post-etch examination of samples.