It is all about Control: Plasmas for Nanofabrication and Plasma Medicine*

Abstract 

Plasmas are used to modify a tremendously wide range of materials.  Plasmas are used to functionalize commodity polymers, to fabricate microelectronics devices and now to treat human tissue.  The development of plasma sources for modification of surfaces requires fine control in order to deliver the desired fluxes of radicals and ions to surfaces.  Achieving this control ultimately enables one to control the energy and velocity distributions of charged and neutral particles.  Controlling electron energy distributions, f(e), enables control of the production rates of radicals that chemically react with surfaces.  Controlling the velocity distributions, f(v), of ions enables control of the activation energy delivered to those surfaces.  There has been an evolution of techniques to control f(e) and f(v) utilizing different types of plasma excitation schemes.  These techniques are now being challenged to provide the control required to fabricate nanoscale structures for microelectronics.  Control becomes even more challenging in biological applications of plasmas and plasma medicine, typically performed at atmospheric pressure, where timescales for plasma formation are shorter than conventional control techniques can address.  In this talk, techniques to control plasma sources will be discussed with examples drawn from nanoscale fabrication and plasma treatment of human tissue. 

* Work supported by the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, Semiconductor Research Corp., Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron. Ltd.

 Bio: 

Mark J. Kushner received the BS in Nuclear Engineering and the BA in Astronomy from UCLA and the MS and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Caltech.  He served on the Technical Staffs of Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Spectra Technology before joining the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1986 where he was the Founder Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and where he served in many administrative roles.  In January 2005, Dr. Kushner joined Iowa State University as Dean of Engineering where he initiated the 2050 Challenge to focus education, research and outreach on addressing the most pressing of societal issues.  Prof. Kushner joined the University of Michigan as founding director of the Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering and George I. Haddad Collegiate Professor in September 2008 where he also directs the DOE Plasma Science on Controlling Plasma Kinetics.  Prof. Kushner's research area is low temperature plasmas, their fundamental properties and technological applications.  He is a Fellow of the APS, IEEE, OSA and AVS.  Prof. Kushner has received numerous awards including the APS Allis Prize, AVS Medard Welch Award and election to the National Academy of Engineering.

Faculty host: Dr. John Verbonceur (johnv@egr.msu.edu)

Michigan State University is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services and activities. accommodations for persons with disabilities may be requested by contacting Joydeep Mitra (mitraj@egr.msu.edu).