Diagnostics for Process Plasmas

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reviews the current state-of-the-art of several diagnostic techniques for characterizing, monitoring, and optimizing the properties of process plasmas. The plasma parameters of plasma configurations which are useful for materials processing, such as dc and rf glow discharges, are similar to the parameters of the boundary plasmas in magnetic fusion devices. As a result, much of the large development effort over the last decade on plasma diagnostics for boundary plasmas has direct application in process plasma systems. As particular examples, the authors discuss recent developments of: (1) electrostatic probes for electron density, temperature and power flow measurements; (2) laser fluorescence spectroscopy for ion density and flux measurements; and (3) quantitative plasma mass spectroscopy using quadrupole mass filters.