The Role of Non-Equilibrium Plasmas and MicroDischarges in Top Down Nanotechnologies and Selforganized Assembly of Nanostructures

We have reviewed the role of plasma technologies in future development of nanoelectronics and in the development of other nanotechnologies. First we address the problems in application of the standard plasma etching procedure. We proceed to discuss the development of damage free plasma processes, in particular the etching by fast neutral beams. Fast neutral beams have a potential for implementation beyond the standard application in production of integrated circuits (ICs). In the second half of the paper, we discuss some of the applications of micro discharges. The dc volte ampere characteristics should be analyzed in order to reveal the predominant physical processes by studying E/N, pd and jd² scaling. We also give some results related to rf microdischarge operating at atmospheric pressure also known as plasma needle. It gives rise to new possibilities for medical treatments (including surgery) with minimum tissue damage. Finally we briefly describe other emerging applications of plasmas in nanotechnologies