Welcome to the home page of the

Engineering Research Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing!

Photo: Multidipole- confined RF Inductive (MRFI) plasma source with magnetic bucket confinement, silicon wafer with separate RF self-bias supply and electrostatic chuck.

Mission

The Plasma Engineering Research Center is dedicated to the advancement of Plasma-Aided Manufacturing in U.S. Industries and in the World. Plasmas are ionized gases and common examples of plasmas are fluorescent lights, lightning and auroral glows. In manufacturing, plasmas generate intense UV light used to dry inks in the printing industry, plasmas change the surface chemsitry of polymers for improved packaging and plasmas etch sub-micron structures for the micro-electronics industry. (The CPU and memory chips used in desk-top computers are etched by a plasma.)

Profile

The ERC for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing is composed of five Thrust Areas - Plasma Etching, Plasma Deposition, Thermal Plasmas, Plasma Modification of Surfaces and Education - and four Support Groups - Diagnostics, Theory & Modeling, Statistics and Real Time Control.

The ERC-PAM headquarters is located at the University of Wisconsin in Madison Wisconsin. Major Research laboratories are located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Minnesota - Minneapolis.

Five Universities; University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, Stanford University and University of California at Los Angeles conduct research under the umbrella of the ERC. Thirty industrial companies participate in ERC activities by providing membership fees, research contracts, student internships and direction.

The ERC-PAM was originally formed in 1988 by the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota with funding from the National Sciences Foundation and Industry.

Director:

Noah Hershkowitz

Associate Director for Industry:

Joachim Heberlein

Associate Director for Education:

Michael Corradini

Headquarters:

1410 Engineering Dr.

Madison, WI 53706

Phone: 608-262-2181 Fax: 608-262-3632

About the ERC for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing

• Research Thrust Areas and Support Groups
• ERC Laboratory and Office Facilities
• Faculty, Staff and Student Involvement
• ERC Outreach and Education
• ERC Industrial Collaboration and Technology Transfer
• Plasma-Aided Manufacturing and Its Applications
• Manufacturing Using Plasmas
• The NSF Engineering Research Centers Program
• ARPA/TRP Manufacturing Engineering Education
• ERC Contact Information