A sputtering-assisted magnetic field system was successfully developed for depositing crystalline Cu thin films at room temperature. This system employs a plasma source and an ion-beam gun with two magnetic field generators, which is covered with sputtering target and the ion-beam gun, simultaneously serving as sputtering plasma and a magnetic field generator. The formation of crystalline Cu thin films at room temperature was dominated by magnetic fields, which was revealed by preliminary experiments. This system can be employed for producing crystalline metal thin films at room temperature.

In this paper, plasma treatment effects on a ploy(dimethyl siloxane) substrate were analyzed for the applications of stretchable silver nanowire (Ag NWs) electrodes. The oxygen plasma treated sample shows the best performance compared to nitrogen treated and untreated samples. The lowest sheet resistance and reasonable stretching capability was achieved up to 20% strain condition without open circuit fail for the oxygen plasma treated sample.

Samples of anodic oxide film used in semiconductor and display manufacturing processes were prepared at different electrolyte temperatures to investigate the corrosion resistance. The anodic oxide film was grown on aluminum alloy 6061 by using a sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) electrolyte of 1.5 M at $0^{\circ}C$, $5^{\circ}C$, $10^{\circ}C$, $15^{\circ}C$, and $20^{\circ}C$. The insulating properties of the samples were evaluated by measuring the breakdown voltage, which gradually increased from 0.43 kV ($0^{\circ}C$) to 0.52 kV ($5^{\circ}C$), 1.02 kV ($10^{\circ}C$), and 1.46 kV ($15^{\circ}C$) as the electrolyte temperature was increased from $0^{\circ}C$ to $15^{\circ}C$, but then decreased to 1.24 kV ($20^{\circ}C$). To evaluate the erosion of the film by fluorine plasma, the plasma erosion and the contamination particles were measured. The plasma erosion was evaluated by measuring the breakdown voltage after exposing the film to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ and $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasmas. With exposure to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ plasma, the breakdown voltage of the film slightly decreased at $0^{\circ}C$, by 0.41 kV; however, the breakdown voltage significantly decreased at $20^{\circ}C$, by 0.83 kV. With exposure to $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasma, the breakdown voltage of the film slightly decreased at $0^{\circ}C$, by 0.38 kV; however, the breakdown voltage significantly decreased at $20^{\circ}C$, by 0. 77 kV. In addition, for the entire temperature range, the breakdown voltage decreased more when sample was exposed to $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasma than to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ plasma. The decrease of the breakdown voltage was lower in the anodic oxide film samples that were grown slowly at lower temperatures. The rate of breakdown voltage decrease after exposure to fluorine plasma was highest at $20^{\circ}C$, indicating that the anodic oxide film was most vulnerable to erosion by fluorine plasma at that temperature. Contamination particles generated by exposure to the $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ and $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasmas were measured on a real-time basis. The number of contamination particles generated after the exposure to the respective plasmas was lower at $5^{\circ}C$ and higher at $0^{\circ}C$. In particular, for the entire temperature range, about five times more contamination particles were generated with exposure to $NF_3/O_2/Ar$ plasma than for exposure to $CF_4/O_2/Ar$ plasma. Observation of the surface of the anodic oxide film showed that the pore size and density of the non-treated film sample increased with the increase of the temperature. The change of the surface after exposure to fluorine plasma was greatest at $0^{\circ}C$. The generation of contamination particles by fluorine plasma exposure for the anodic oxide film prepared in the present study was different from that of previous aluminum anodic oxide films.

In order to understand the mechanism of the synthesis of particles using a plasma torch, it is necessary to understand the reaction mechanisms using a computer simulation. In this study, we have developed a simulation method to combine the Lagrangian scheme to follow microparticles and a nodal method to treat nanoparticles categorized with different particle sizes. The Lagrangian scheme includes the Coulomb force which affects the dynamics of larger particles. In contrast, the nodal method is adequate for the nanoparticles because the charge effect is negligible for nanoparticles but the number of nanoparticles is much larger than that of microparticles. This method is helpful to understand the dynamics and growth mechanism of micro- and nano-powder mixture observed in the experiment.

The ion energy and angle distributions (IEADs) in the DC magnetron sputtering systems are investigated for the variation of gas pressure using particle-in-cell simulation. Even for the condition of collisionless ion sheath at low pressure, it is possible to change the IEAD significantly with the change of gas pressure. The bombarding ions to the target with low energy and large incident angle are observed at low pressure when the sheath voltage drop is low. It is because the electron transport is hindered by the magnetic field at low pressure because of few collisions per electron gyromotion while the ions are not magnetized. Therefore, the space charge effect is the most dominant factor for the determination of IEADs in low-pressure magnetron sputtering discharges.