Fundamentals and applications of plasma cleaning

Surface treatment is necessary in a host of industries to attain a defect-free surface. In medical and semiconductor fields, for example, clean surfaces are essential to provide good adhesion across multiple interfaces. Conventional treatment methods such as wet chemical cleaning or solvent degreasing can effectively increase the wettability of surfaces and thereby the adhesion, or decrease the contact resistivity. However, a massive disadvantage of these techniques is that they leave the treated surface contaminated with traces of process chemicals and generate residues that are difficult to dispose of and are harmful to the environment. Due to the health concerns of these techniques, dry cleaning techniques such as plasma cleaning are currently being explored by researchers around the globe. In this chapter, a comprehensive review of the current and past work on plasma cleaning applications along with the fundamentals and advantages of plasma cleaning will be discussed.