R. Mohan Sankaran, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
Low-temperature plasmas have played a vital role in materials manufacturing such as the fabrication of semiconductor-based electronics. Plasmas are typically used to etch and deposit thin films subtractively, in which undesired areas of a larger material are removed to produce the desired pattern or shape. Recently, additive methods to materials manufacturing have emerged that create structures with minimal wasteage by building up a structure layer-by-layer. With the ability to process materials at low temperature, carry out non-equilibrium chemistry, and conform to three-dimensional shapes, plasmas offer enticing possibilities for additive manufacturing, much like the contributions that have already been made in subtractive manufacturing. In this talk, I will present our recent development of a method called plasma-enhanced chemical film conversion in which a plasma process is combined with printing methods to treat or convert deposited precursors. Films or patterned structures can be directly obtained on polymer or silicon substrates to facilitate applications. The method is general and has been applied to metals, semiconductors, and insulators.