Observations of Surface Mode Influence on Plasma Uniformity in PIC/MCC Simulations of Large Capacitive Discharges

Eremin, Denis; Brinkmann, Ralf Peter; Mussenbrock, Thomas

doi:10.1002/ppap.201600164

Cited by 12 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(97 reference statements)

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“…The impact of external circuits is not our primary interest in the present work. Although previous studies observed symmetric and asymmetric structures through 2D PIC simulations, [ 9–15,17,18 ] they did not observe nonlocal kinetic effects by particle dynamics sensitive to the time change. The previous study for the nonlocal effect observed time‐averaged and spatiotemporal profiles for a specific pressure condition of 100 mTorr.…”

Section: Simulation Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 79%

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Two‐dimensional analysis for the transition from nonlocal to local electron kinetics and its effect on the spatial uniformity of a capacitively coupled plasma

Kim

Park

et al. 2022

Plasma Processes & Polymers

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In capacitively coupled plasmas (CCPs) operated under various pressure conditions in semiconductor manufacturing processes, the transition in discharge characteristics is observed depending on local or nonlocal electron kinetics. A two‐dimensional (2D) particle‐in‐cell (PIC) simulation is required because the one‐dimensional PIC method cannot capture the effect of device structures and because fluid models cannot treat the self‐consistent change in the energy distributions. Using a 2D PIC simulation parallelized with a graphics processing unit, we investigated the transition of electron kinetics for the variation of the driving voltage, gas pressure, the gap distance between upper and lower electrodes, and the sidewall condition. Moreover, the mechanism for electron energy relaxation in a CCP is elucidated to develop a method to improve the process uniformity.

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Section: Simulation Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Studies on various kinetic effects in 2D CCP structures have recently been reported, even for high‐pressure regimes. [ 7, 9–18 ]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two‐dimensional analysis for the transition from nonlocal to local electron kinetics and its effect on the spatial uniformity of a capacitively coupled plasma

Kim

Park

et al. 2022

Plasma Processes & Polymers

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“…Indeed, a constant rf power has led to unstable results in our simulation. In addition, most researchers 27,[32][33][34] conducted PIC/MCC simulations with a fixed rf voltage or current and not rf power.…”

Section: Model Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron kinetics in capacitively coupled plasmas modulated by electron injection

Zhang

Peng

Innocenti

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Physics

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The controlling effect of an electron injection on the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) and on the energetic electron flux, in a capacitive radio-frequency argon plasma, is studied using a one-dimensional particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collisions model. The input power of the electron beam is as small as several tens of Watts with laboratory achievable emission currents and energies. With the electron injection, the electron temperature decreases but with a significant high energy tail. The electron density, electron temperature in the sheath, and electron heating rate increase with the increasing emission energy. This is attributed to the extra heating of the energetic electrons in the EEDF tail. The non-equilibrium EEDF is obtained for strong non-local distributions of the electric field, electron heating rate, excitation, and ionization rate, indicating the discharge has transited from a volume heating (a-mode dominated) into a sheath heating (c-mode dominated) type. In addition, the electron injection not only modifies the self-bias voltage, but also enhances the electron flux that can reach the electrodes. Moreover, the relative population of energetic electrons significantly increases with the electron injection compared to that without the electron injection, relevant for modifying the gas and surface chemistry reactions.

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“…Using an electrostatic implicit particle-in-cell (PIC) code, Eremin et al found that a high frequency driven large-area capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) discharge can exhibit strong wave effects [52]. They also demonstrated that the two types of wave modes lead to non-uniformities of the plasma density profile [58], and that large collisionality gives rise to a strong damping of the waves as they propagate [53].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of standing waves and wave-induced hysteresis in asymmetric capacitive discharges

Wen

Kawamura

Lieberman

et al. 2017

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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Asymmetrically excited, high frequency cylindrical capacitive discharges are widely used for materials etching and thin film deposition. Two-dimensional (2D) electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show the existence of standing waves and wave-induced hysteresis of the plasma density, i.e. two different steady states for the same driving rf voltage amplitude, when the voltage is increased from a low value or decreased from a high value. The phenomenon is explored over a range of pressures (10-30 mTorr) and frequencies (60-80 MHz). Examined at 73 MHz, with increasing gas pressure, the hysteresis loop gradually shrinks and vanishes. To understand the hysteresis induced by z-symmetric and z-antisymmetric radial wave propagation modes, the PIC results are compared with a nonlinear transmission line model assuming uniform bulk plasma density, to determine the symmetric and antisymmetric voltage amplitudes. The model results are in good agreement with the PIC observations, showing central-low and central-high profiles of the antisymmetric mode voltage at low density and high density, respectively. The results are then used to determine the parameters of a lumped circuit model of the two modes, from which the hysteresis is induced by the density dependence of the symmetric and anti-symmetric wave mode absorbed electron powers. For the low density state, the discharge is sustained mainly by the symmetric mode excitation. At high density, the discharge is sustained by both symmetric and anti-symmetric modes, with the latter partly showing a spatial resonance. The results are also shown to be frequency dependent, with an onset of the hysteresis at about 66 MHz.

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Observations of Surface Mode Influence on Plasma Uniformity in PIC/MCC Simulations of Large Capacitive Discharges

Cited by 12 publications

References 33 publications

Two‐dimensional analysis for the transition from nonlocal to local electron kinetics and its effect on the spatial uniformity of a capacitively coupled plasma

Two‐dimensional analysis for the transition from nonlocal to local electron kinetics and its effect on the spatial uniformity of a capacitively coupled plasma

Electron kinetics in capacitively coupled plasmas modulated by electron injection

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of standing waves and wave-induced hysteresis in asymmetric capacitive discharges

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