Local sputter etching by micro plasma jet in SEM

Abstract

A local high pressure micro plasma jet was proposed for micro scale local sputter etching in a vacuum system. A small orifice gas nozzle as an anode was placed in a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) chamber to produce the local high gas pressure and supply Argon gas for DC plasma generation at a short gap distance. The characteristics of local sputter etching by the micro plasma jet were studied. At DC power of 1.68 mW, a silicon sputtering rate of approximately 0.01 μm/s was achieved by using an orifice 40 μm in diameter at 2.5 sccm gas flow rate and 100 μm gap distance. The sputtered area was 60 μm in diameter.