The use of Langmuir probes for measuring plasma density is subject to uncertainty because the theories commonly used to interpret the data give widely differing results. This is especially troublesome in partially ionized plasmas used, for instance, in the semiconductor industry, since no existing theory adequately treats the case when there are a few collisions between ions and neutral atoms. In this work, plasma densities measured by microwave interferometry and plasma-oscillation probes are compared with those from probe data analyzed with Langmuir's orbital motion limited (OML) theory, the Allen-Boyd-Reynolds (ABR) theory and the Bernstein-Rabinowitz-Laframboise (BRL) theory. It is found that ABR underestimates and BRL overestimates the density, the problems being the neglect of ion orbiting in ABR and the effect of ion-neutral collisions in BRL. The best theory is either OML or the geometric mean between the ABR and BRL results. For thicker probes, other methods are suggested.
Complete one cycle and 1.5 cycle ac operations are performed in the STOR-M tokamak with the plasma current of ∼20 kA using newly developed feedback control and Ohmic heating circuits. Bias voltage adjustment is installed in the plasma position circuit to optimize the plasma position in the second negative plasma current phase for multicycle ac operation. The key to successful, reproducible multicycle ac tokamak operations on STOR-M is to control both the total vertical field by the feedback control system and the plasma position by application of the bias voltage.
A compact toroid (CT) penetrating into a tokamak discharge is modelled as a conducting
solid sphere with an intrinsic magnetic moment. Equations of CT motion in tokamak discharges are derived and used to calculate the trajectory of a CT with parameters pertinent for penetrating the ITER tokamak. The advantage of tangential CT injection and the optimal direction
of the initial magnetic moment are discussed.
The importance of plasma diagnostics at semiconductor equipment manufacturers has
increased steadily over the past decade. The design and procurement of advanced etching
tools now require a full host of plasma diagnostics and modeling capability. Examples of
these activities at a semiconductor equipment manufacturer will be given, with specifics
of significant and useful results. Examples include the development and optimization of
an inductive plasma source, trend analysis and hardware effects on ion energy
distributions, and mass spectrometry influences on process development. Discussion will
focus on plasma diagnostics for in-house development and proliferation in an
environment with strong financial justification requirements.
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