Table of Contents
- Plasma Aided Manufacturing and its Applications
- The Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing
- Laboratory and Office Facilities
- Faculty, Staff and Student Involvement
- Industrial Collaboration/Technology Transfer
- Manufacturing using Plasmas
- Description of Research Areas
Clicking on "CPAM" logo on any page will return viewer to CPAM homepage.
Plasma-aided manufacturing, defined as the use of partially ionized gases
in the manufacturing process, is finding a rapidly expanding number of
applications in industry. These include modifications of solid surfaces
and of gases. Plasma-aided manufacturing has direct applications in
semiconductor fabrication, materials synthesis, welding, lighting,
polymers, waste removal, high-performance ceramics, and numerous other
items in both high-technology and the more "traditional" manufacturing
processes. It provides and/or improves one or more steps in the
manufacture of a growing variety of products ranging from low to very high
value-added products. In some cases, such as semiconductor fabrication and
in the deposition of certain polymers, plasmas provide the only technique
that can be used. In other applications, plasmas provide a more cost
effective or a more environmentally benign alternative to other competing
processes.
The Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing (C-PAM) began independent
operation in 1998 with research activities at both the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota. C-PAM replaced the
Engineering Research Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing, which was
established in 1988 with a grant from the National Science Foundation as
its primary support. C-PAM brings experts from academic and industrial
communities together with state-of-the-art equipment to further the
understanding and expand the applications of plasma-aided manufacturing.
The Center has been organized to cover the full range of plasma techniques
currently employed in industry and is well positioned to address, improve
and adapt new techniques as they are developed.
Experiments at C-PAM are located in newly remodeled space totaling
approximately 8,750 square feet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and
5,100 square feet at the University of Minnesota. Central facilities
include offices and a large lab complex that contains a number of different
plasma-etching and deposition reactors. Support in Diagnostics, Theory and
Modeling, and Technical Support, occupy spaces that adjoin the laboratory.
Research on plasma modification of materials takes place in an adjacent
laboratory specifically designed for the special requirements of the
processing system. Plasma spraying and thermal plasma chemical vapor
deposition (TPCVD) experiments are performed in well-equipped laboratories
at the University of Minnesota.
The Center is an interdisciplinary team with contributors from ten
engineering and science disciplines of international stature at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota: plasmas,
materials, microelectronics, chemistry, forestry, physics, statistics,
textiles, quality and productivity improvement, and manufacturing systems.
Achieving full coverage of the broad field required combining expertise
from both Wisconsin and Minnesota. There are two modes of research. One
mode of projects helps industry to solve current problems, to improve
existing products or develop new products. The other mode consists of
projects aimed at improved understanding of the physics, chemistry, and
material science of processes or plasma sources. This is aimed at
industrial needs of the future and is very suited to students' theses.
The Wisconsin Plasma Processing and Technology Research Consortium (WISPP)
is the vehicle through which participating institutions interact with the
Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing. C-PAM is dedicated to working on
research issues of concern to its industrial partners and U.S. industry.
Advantages of being an Industrial Member
As a member of C-PAM, an industrial member has the right and opportunity
(a) to provide input to the selection of the priorities of the research
performed within the C-PAM through an annual evaluationof all research
projects; (b) to influence the direction of individual research projects
through communication with individual investigators or thrust area leaders;
(c) to make use of the C-PAM facilities and personnel expertise by
sponsoring specific research projects of any size to be pursued within the
C-PAM with objectives defined by the company; (d) to have personnel of
their own company make use of specific C-PAM facilities for an
investigation of limited scope, with C-PAM staff providing assistance for
the set-up of the experiment; only operating expense must be carried by the
company; (e) to obtain technical information before it is published through
attendance of C-PAM organized meetings; (f) to attend workshops organized
by C-PAM on specific topics of interest to the member companies; (g) to
obtain the C-PAM Annual Report describing the activities of C-PAM, and on
request video tapes of the C-PAM seminar series, which are normally not
available to non-members; (h) the opportunity to identify students for
internship positions.; (i) perhaps the most important advantage of
membership is the opportunity to work with students and identify future
employees in the beginning of their careers.
Confidentiality information
All C-PAM employees have been made aware of the following proprietary information policy: The Center interacts with a variety of companies, some of whom are competitors of one another. Companies provide unrestricted support to the center and/or restricted support for particular company sponsored projects. The latter often involves information, materials and techniques which the industrial partners of the center regard as confidential. In some cases the companies may even regard their membership in the center as being confidential.
It is critical and necessary that all participants in the center respect the confidentiality of our industrial partners. To this end, no material relating to industrial partners should be shared with anyone outside the center. The only exception is material specifically authorized by individual industrial partners to be made available to the public. All C-PAM internal documents and external communications relating to industrial partners should be regarded as confidential.
How to become an Industrial Member
A Company can become a member of C-PAM by providing annual support in the form of one of the following:
(a) payment of a $20,000 fee to C-PAM for unrestricted use by the center;
(b) support for a specific research project in the amount of $45,000 or more with objectives determined by the company and pursued within C-PAM;
(c) a grant in the amount of $45,000 for unrestricted use by a specific investigator associated with C-PAM or Fellowship support for graduate students, as long as the grant is used for supporting research performed within the center;
(d) a donation of equipment with the value of $45,000 or more which can be used by C-PAM investigators:
(e) a combination of a specific research project, an unrestricted grant to a specific investigator associated with C-PAM, or an equipment donation, in the total value to C-PAM of $45,000.
(f) For companies with earnings less than $20 Million per year the fee is payment of a $5,000 fee plus an amount equal or larger than 0.075% of the annual sales of the company.
Multiple year memberships will be granted for support in multiples of the amounts listed above in any of the payment categories.
A company membership is valid for N years, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1, depending on the number of year payments made by the company on joining (or rejoining). Membership begins on the date on which payment (or equipment) is received by C-PAM. After N years are completed, a company will be granted a grace period of up to six months to arrange for continued membership. During the grace period, the company will still have the rights of a member.
Multiple year memberships will be granted for support in multiples of the amounts listed above in any of the payment categories.
A company membership is valid for N years, where N is an integer greater
than or equal to 1, depending on the number of year payments made by the
company on joining (or rejoining). Membership begins on the date on which
payment (or equipment) is received by C-PAM. After N years are completed,
a company will be granted a grace period of up to six months to arrange for
continued membership. During the grace period, the company will still have
the rights of a member.
When plasmas are utilized in manufacturing, the application and character
of the process involved are governed by the operating pressure of the
system. The research areas of C-PAM span a progressive range of operating
pressures from below 10-4 Torr to greater than atmospheric pressure. The
figure at the right displays the types of processes used in manufacturing
as a function of the operating pressure.
At low pressures, physical rather than chemical effects dominate. Such is
the case in ion implantation from plasmas and plasma sputtering of
materials. As the pressure increases, chemical effects become more
significant, as in the area of plasma etching for microelectronics.
At higher pressures, as in plasma deposition and polymerization,
deposition effects begin to prevail. At the highest pressure range, used
in thermal plasma spraying, the plasma tends to be utilized primarily as a
heat (thermal) source. But it is also employed in surface modification
(both physical and chemical) using Corona sources.
C-PAM has effectively incorporated into its research the complete range of
pressure used in plasma-aided manufacturing. Across theassorted projects
and research groups, many of the same technical questions can arise. For
example, each group needs to know the gas and surface temperatures as well
as the densities and energies of the various species making up the plasma,
such as electrons, ions and free radicals. To help address some of these
common issues and to provide an interconnection across the research areas,
C-PAM has established two support staff positions in the areas of Plasma
Diagnostics and Theory and Modeling.
When an object is placed in a plasma, a number of processes occur
simultaneously. These include implantation, where particles that are
accelerated through the plasma embed themselves beneath the surface of the
material; sputtering, where the plasma physically removes atoms from the
surface; deposition, where plasma particles chemically bond with the
surface; and etching where plasma particles bond to the surface atoms and
produce a volatile compound. C-PAM's approach involves the
characterization and control of plasma conditions so as to optimize the
desired process while minimizing the effects of undesired processes.
Characterization takes advantage of an extensive infrastructure in plasma
gas phase diagnostics.
Research in the Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing spans a wide range
of plasma operating conditions. Research areas are:
In addition,
C-PAM has strong supporting work in Plasma Diagnostics and Theory and
Modeling. Direction of individual projects is determined with input from
C-PAM's various industrial partners. The research must be
cross-disciplinary and have a well-defined goal aimed at improving
industrial competitiveness.
Theory and Modeling Group
The theory and modeling group of the Center for Plasma Aided Manufacturing
provides a set of tools for simulation and interpretation of plasma and
semiconductor behavior. These tools have been developed to be accurate and
applicable across a very wide range of physical situations. An extremely
flexible approach to numerical solution of partial differential equations,
which has been used extensively for sophisticated plasma and semiconductor
modeling, is described and software made available at our website clerc.engr.wisc.edu
and links from that site.