Electron drag force in EUV induced pulsed hydrogen plasmas

TL;DR

This paper investigates the electron drag force in EUV-induced pulsed hydrogen plasmas, revealing its significance in particle transport during the thermal phase, which impacts semiconductor manufacturing.

Contribution

It provides the first analysis of electron drag force dynamics in EUV pulsed hydrogen plasmas and its role in particle transport.

Findings

Electron drag force is negligible at the start of the pulse.

Electron drag force becomes dominant at the end of the pulse.

Electron drag influences particle transport and defect formation.

Abstract

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) induced pulsed plasma is unique due to its transient characteristics: the plasma switches between non-thermal state (when EUV power is ON at the beginning of the pulse) and thermal state (end of the pulse at ~ 20 us). It is shown that although electron drag force acting on nm size particles in hydrogen plasma is negligible compared to the ion drag force at the beginning of the pulse, however it can be dominant at the end of the pulse and can play important role in particle transport leading to defectivity issues for semiconductor chip production technologies.