Plasma processing workshop engages researchers

Nearly 40 attendees participated in the workshop, which was led by Dr. David Lishan, Principal Scientist and Director, Technical Marketing, Plasma-Therm. The workshop was hosted by the New South Wales Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility, part of the School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications at UNSW.

The workshop, one of two presented by Plasma-Therm in Australia this September, covered a variety of topics, including the fundamentals of plasma processing and advanced plasma etching and deposition technologies. Plasma processing is used extensively in semiconductor device fabrication, materials science and nanotechnology research.

Those who attended the workshop represent a wide range of disciplines that are enabled by plasma technology, including MEMS, bio-sensing, photonics, and quantum computing. In early October, engineers at UNSW announced that they had succeeded in creating the first quantum logic gate in silicon, which could enable manufacturing of a full-scale quantum computer chip using traditional semiconductor fabrication techniques.

The NSW Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility operates a range of plasma etch and deposition tools supporting numerous research projects across the University’s Science and Engineering Faculties, as well as research being conducted by industry groups and academics external to UNSW, according to Dr. Linda Macks, Facility Manager, ANFF-NSW.

“The Plasma-Therm technical workshop provided a comprehensive program of plasma fundamentals, detailed etch process considerations, and overview of plasma deposition processes,” Dr. Macks said. “The material was of great value to all participants, from graduate students new to plasma processing, to laboratory staff responsible for process development and maintenance of plasma tools,” she said. “David Lishan was an engaging and effective presenter and was generous in sharing his extensive experience in this field.”

Shinyoung Noh, Ph.D. candidate, said that Dr. Lishan’s presentations were perfectly targeted to researchers conducting plasma experiments. He said the information he gained “would have took me years of time to realize if I did not learn [it] from this workshop.” Joanna Szymansaka said the level of technical information presented was just right for “a very wide audience, from a student to an experienced engineer.”

In the last several years, Plasma-Therm has presented in-depth plasma-processing workshops at more than 20 institutions in the United States, Sweden, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China and other countries.