Simulation and experiment of inverted pyramid DBD micro-plasma devices array for maskless nanoscale etching

Abstract

A novel maskless nanoscale material etching method based on microcavities dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) array with advantages of high accuracy and high efficiency has been proposed in this paper. A two-dimensional simulation of pyramidal hollow cathode DBD microplasma operated in Ar has been studied using FEM method. Results indicated that high density microplasma with its magnitude of 1e18/m3 is obtained in microcavity. Total absorbed power enhance as relative permittivity of dielectric layer increased. A 3×3 50μm inverted pyramidal microplasma array without dielectric layer has been successfully fabricated by MEMS process and discharged stably in 10kPa Ar, which may lay a good foundation of ongoing DBD microplasma devices array and future maskless nanoscale etching.