Abstract: A wafer is supported on pins within a plasma reactor, allowing the plasma to act on both sides of the wafer. Various processes are disclosed for pins-up and pins-down condition. If conductive pins are used, they are preferably flattened. The wafer is preferably biased negatively with respect to the plasma.

Abstract: A process monitor which is particularly useful for endpoint detection in plasma etching processes does not require the dedication of a test area on the wafer for endpoint detection and also obviates the need for wafer alignment. An improved optical window which does not significantly perturb the RF fields in the plasma chamber is also disclosed. The apparatus reflects laser energy off an area of the wafer comparable to the area of a typical die and extracts the necessary information from the resulting waveform by means of first and second time derivatives.

Abstract: A sterilization procedure and apparatus is disclosed in which articles of irregular shape or having long, narrow apertures or cavities may be sterilized at low temperature by being subjected to a plasma whose pressure is varied in a cyclic manner so as to provide forced convection of active species into the apertures, cavities, and crevices of the article to be sterilized.

Abstract: A sterilizable package in which a porous envelope containing the article to be sterilized is subjected to a plasma, said plasma being generated outside of said envelope with the reactive components of the plasma passing through said porous envelope, thereby sterilizing the article through the package.