Plasma Torch Processing
Researchers at PSI are active in the development of tools for material processing. One of these tools is PSI’s patented MIcrowave Driven plasma Jet (MIDJet). Plasma torches are used in a variety of materials and chemical processing applications. The MIDJet uses a microwave discharge (0.1 to 30 kW) to generate high temperature, high fluence beams with atomic or molecular fragments formed from a variety of source gas mixtures without wear or contamination from electrodes. As a result, the MIDJet meets Semiconductor Industry Association contamination and charge damage requirements. The primary applications of the torch include: 1) Oxygen, fluorine or hydrogen atom based chemistries for etching applications such as photoresist stripping, 2) A source of reactive precursors for large area, high rate Chemical Vapor Deposition of materials such as polysilicon, 3) Chemical processing applications such as steam reforming or sulfur removal from power plant waste streams, and 4) A source of energetic intermediates for high energy chemical laser such as metastable O21Δ for the Electric Oxygen Iodine Laser (EOIL) for directed energy defense applications. New MIDJet applications which PSI is pursuing include solar cell and nano-material production.
PSI MIDJet-2000 Plasma Torch
Library: (Papers, Presentations and Posters)
1. S.J. Davis, S. Lee, D.B. Oakes, J. Haney, J.C. Magill, D.A. Paulsen, P. Cataldi, K.L. Galbally-Kinney, D. Vu, J. Polex, W.J. Kessler, and W.T. Rawlins, “EOIL Power Scaling in a 1-5 kW Supersonic Discharge-Flow Reactor,” PSI-1513/SR-1323, LASE 2008: High Energy/ Average Power Lasers and Intense Beam Applications III; San Jose, CA, 19-24 January 2008, SPIE Paper 6874-10.
2. Rawlins, W.T., Lee, S., Kessler, W.J., Oakes, D.B., Piper, L.G., and Davis, S.J., “The Electric Oxygen-Iodine Laser: Chemical Kinetics of O2(a1∆) Production and I(2P1/2) Excitation in Microwave Discharge Systems,” SPIE Paper No. 6101C-51, LASE 2006, High Energy/Average Power Lasers and Intense Beam Applications, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. #6101, December 2005.
3. M. Read, W. Schwarz, and D. Oakes, “Application of a Microwave-Driven Plasma Torch to Thermal Chemistry”, presented at the 2004 International Conference of Plasma Science, June 26 – July 1, 2004, Baltimore, MD.