URL study guide
https://tue.osiris-student.nl/onderwijscatalogus/extern/cursus?cursuscode=3MP170&collegejaar=2025&taal=enDescription
The importance of plasma processing has been vastly growing in the last decades. Plasma processing is for example crucial in today’s manufacturing of integrated circuits and large area electronics, whereas plasmas also play an enabling role in renewable energy technologies. This course will address the main applications of plasma processing in science and industry, and particularly focuses on the basic concepts of plasma physics, plasma processing methods and related equipment. The application of plasmas for etching and deposition of materials, nanopattern transfer, and formation of nanostructures will be addressed. Since plasma processing often relies on plasma-surface interaction, general concepts from the field of surface science will be explained.Besides plasma processing, this course focuses on the fabrication of integrated circuits, MEMS, solar cells, and related devices. This includes lectures on the state-of-the-art of patterning, atomic-scale processing, and emerging materials such as two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2DTMDs). As such, the course can also serve as in introduction to the developments in high tech manufacturing.
The course will be examined by final examination as well as by an assignment. The assignment involves unraveling the manufacturing process of for example a smartphone, solar cell, sensor, or battery, based on the topics that are addressed in the classes. In this way, application of the acquired knowledge and skills will be tested including critically reading and interpreting literature reports. One session will be devoted to a lab training to obtain hands-on experience.
Objectives
After this course, students will be able to:- Explain the basic concepts of plasma processing, as well as the characteristics of the employed plasmas.
- Describe etching and deposition reactions in terms of relevant surface science concepts such as sticking probability, adsorption isotherms, and reaction mechanisms.
- Describe how current and future applications can benefit from plasma processing methods (e.g. etching, deposition, and the formation of nanostructures).
- Identify which (plasma) processing techniques were applied in the fabrication of state-of-the-art devices (e.g. smartphones, solar cells, batteries, sensors), given a detailed description of such a device.
- Interpret literature reports in the field of plasma processing.