Distributed electron cyclotron resonance plasma immersion for large area ion implantation (invited)

Abstract

Plasma-based ion implantation (PBII) is a recent method to implant ions into materials for modifying surface properties. Negative high voltage pulses are applied to the substrate to extract ions from the plasma and accelerate them directly onto the substrate surface. The main advantages of PBII over ion beam implantation are its simplicity for processing large surfaces or three-dimensional objects, and the possibility of preparing surfaces at low ion bombardment energy prior to the implantation process. However, in contrast to conventional ion implantation, the PBII process does not apply mass selection. Due to the wide ion sheath expansion (a few tens of cm), large volumes of plasma are mandatory around the substrate. Multipolar discharges, which produce a peripheral ionization facing the substrate and can be easily scaled up, are well adapted to the PBII process and thus widely used. However, hot filaments to sustain plasmas of reactive gases in multipolar magnetic field structures are progressively phased out in favor of distributed electron cyclotron resonance (DECR) plasma sources. The principle, the design, and the performances of DECR plasmas are presented. Then, PBII in DECR plasmas is illustrated through two selected examples.