PhD on Prevention of plasma- and flow-assisted dust release

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label Burse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Silviu Marinescu
The research program is carried out in the framework of the Dutch High Tech Systems & Materials program in close collaboration with ASML and funded by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW. In EUV lithography tools free floating particles are a cause for concern as they can land on the reticle (mask).

These particles on the mask can easily lead to major defects in the integrated circuits produced by the tool and therefore should be avoided at any cost. However, on any surface inside such a machine there will be dust particles present which can be released by flow and/or plasma conditions. Furthermore, the plasma itself, which is induced by the EUV radiation, can have detrimental effects on mirrors inside the EUV tool. In this STW program both the dust resuspension as well as the direct plasma damage, both deteriorating the operation conditions of EUV lithography tools, are studied in two strongly related PhD projects.

One will be carried out in the plasma physics group and another in the fluid dynamics group at the Physics Department of TU/e. Experimental studies will be combined with flow- and plasma modeling in order to fully understand the debris transport processes.

Project description



The project carried out in the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory focuses on the dynamics of debris, its probability to deposit at walls and their tendency to detach from walls, which are both strongly influenced by the local plasma and flow conditions. Debris dynamics and transport will be investigated by numerical modelling. Close to the collector the flow is in the hydrodynamic regime with transport coefficients affected by the plasma properties. In the main chamber the flow is in the transition regime of rarefied gas.

In order to define models that can help predicting and controlling the dynamics of debris, you will address the transport in hydrodynamic and rarefied gas flows, in presence of weak and harsh plasma conditions. You will use Lattice Boltzmann Methods for debris-resolved simulations near surfaces, Direct Numerical Simulation algorithms for debris transport in the EUV tool based on the point-particle approach, and coupled flow-plasma simulations with PLASIMO. You will also set up or collaborate in experiments for validation of several of the modelling steps.

Location

The work of this subproject will be carried out in the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (www.fluid.tue.nl) at the Department of Applied Physics of Eindhoven University of Technology, in close collaboration with the other subproject in the group Elementary Processes in Gas discharges of our department, and with ASML scientists. This subproject is supervised by prof. H.J.H. Clercx, prof. F. Toschi and dr. J. van Dijk.