Line-type inductively coupled plasma source with ferromagnetic module

The characteristics of a line-type, internal antenna for an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source installed with a ferromagnetic module were investigated for possible application to roll-to-roll processing of next-generation display devices. The use of 2 MHz instead of 13.56 MHz for the 2300 mm long ICP source improved the plasma uniformity to less than 11% along the antenna line. In addition, the use of Ni-Zn ferromagnetic material in the line-type antenna improved the plasma density to about 3.1 × 10 ¹¹ cm^-3 at 3500 W of 2 MHz radio frequency power by confining the induced, time-varying magnetic field between the antenna line and the substrate. When the photoresist-covered glass substrate was etched at 4000 W using 40 mTorr and Ar/O₂ (7 : 3), an etch uniformity of about 5-6% was obtained along the antenna line.