LOPATA HALL, Room 101
December 12, 2003
Time: 11 am

Plasma reactors to produce monodisperse nanoparticles and uniform thin film coatings

Dr. Kyo-Seon Kim
Visiting Research Scientist
DuPont Central Research & Development

From : Department of Chemical Engineering
Kangwon National University
Kangwon-Do, Korea

Plasma processes such as plasma chemical vapor deposition, etching, and sputtering are being widely used for semiconductor manufacturing processes, but they are quite notorious vis a vis particle contamination.  The size of particles generated in the plasma processes ranges from nanometers to microns, and the particles induce several serious defects in the performance and quality of microelectronic devices and also in the cost of final products.  Particle growth in the plasma reactor occurs in three phases (initial growth phase, rapid growth phase and saturation phase) and the analysis on particle growth in plasma reactor is important to reduce the particle contamination in semiconductor industries.

As the particles generated in a plasma reactor are found to be quite monodisperse experimentally and theoretically, we can consider the plasma reactor as a new candidate to produce monodisperse nanoparticles.  The particle growth in plasma reactor was analyzed systematically for various process conditions, considering the effects of particle charge distribution, particle generation and coagulation, and fluid flow.  Based on these analyses, the possibility of plasma reactor for production of monodisperse particles will be proposed and the conditions of plasma reactor without particle contamination will also be discussed to prepare uniform coating of thin films.

Brief Biosketch:

Kyo-Seon Kim is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Kangwon National University, Korea, where he has been working from 1989, and is currently a Visiting Research Scientist at DuPont Central Research & Development, Experimental Station on his sabbatical leave.  He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees all in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) and University of Cincinnati, OH in 1979, 1981 and 1989, respectively.  He finished his Ph.D. degree in the field of aerosol science and technology, focusing on particle dynamics for optical fiber preform fabrication.  He worked at Korea Institute of Energy and Resources as a researcher from 1981 to 1985 and worked on projects related to fuel cell technologies and coal particle handling technologies.  During 1993-1994, he was a Visiting Professor at Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd, Japan.  His main research interests are in nanoparticle synthesis and particle dynamics in various chemical reactors including plasma reactor, flame reactor and corona discharge reactor.

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