The excitation of a low-temperature, capacitively coupled plasma with non-sinusoidal, tailored voltage waveforms (TVWs) has been demonstrated as an effective tool to separately control the ion energy and ion flux to a substrate, both theoretically [1, 2] and experimentally [3][4][5][6]. By applying TVWs that consist of a fundamental frequency and its consecutive harmonics, an asymmetric plasma response will be produced and a DC self-bias voltage (η) can be generated even in geometrically symmetric reactors, an effect called the electrical asymmetry effect [7]. By then adjusting the phase shift ϕ (ranging from 0 to 2π) between these frequencies, asymmetric voltage waveforms having different voltage maxima and minima can be obtained. By controlling this amplitude asymmetry, the ion bombardment energy (IBE) on the electrode can be continuously controlled while keeping the ion flux constant, and several research groups have shown its various advantages to better control and understand the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) of silicon thin films [8][9][10].

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