Fabrication and Performance Optimization of the Microplasma Reactor with Composite Dielectrics

A microplasma reactor with composite dielectric layers for maskless micro/nano plasma etching is presented. The composite dielectric layers include the Si₃N₄, SiO₂ and polyimide film. In order to obtain optimum dielectric properties of dielectric films, the process parameters for depositing the Si₃N₄ and SiO₂ film were obtained through a large number of experimental data. Then the microplasma reactor having inverted pyramidal hollow cathode and metal-composite dielectric layers-metal sandwich structure, is successfully fabricated. The experiment results show that the lifetimes, stability and microdischarge characteristics of the devices are superior to those of earlier fabricated with a single polymer dielectric layer. These microplasma devices are expected to operate in the further maskless scanning plasma etching.