Fluid simulation of the plasma uniformity in pulsed dual frequency inductively coupled plasma

Abstract

As the wafer size increases, pulsed dual frequency inductively coupled plasma sources have been proposed as an effective method to achieve large-area uniform plasmas. A two-dimensional (2D) self-consistent fluid model, combined with an electromagnetic module, has been employed to investigate the influence of the pulse duty cycle and the pulse phase shift on the plasma radial uniformity in an argon discharge. When both antennas are pulsed, the best radial uniformity is obtained at 30%, due to the balance between the positive feedback and diffusion loss. When the duty cycle decreases, the bulk plasma density becomes lower since the power absorption is limited during the shorter active-glow period. As the duty cycle decreases to 10%, the plasma density is characterized by an edge-high profile because of the strong diffusion. When the pulse duty cycle of the outer two-turn coil is fixed at 70%, the plasma density profiles shift from center-high over uniform to edge-high as the pulse duty cycle of the inner coil decreases from 50% to 10%, and the best plasma uniformity appears at 30%. In addition, by adjusting pulse phase shifting of two antennas, the plasma uniformity could also be improved, and the nonuniformity degree decreases from 0.138 for the synchronous pulse to about 0.101 for the asynchronous pulse.

Crystalline and Electrical Property Improvement of Filtrated, Exfoliated Graphite Sheets by an In-Plane Current and Heating Treatment

“…As our treatment acts onto a macroscopic assembly of graphite flakes filtered into a 10 mm × 10 mm sheet, homogeneity in the improvement is critically important. Previous reports using DC/AC current and plasma treatments have shown difficulty in uniformly processing the entire surface [ 30 ]. Large treatment variation is an obstacle in future scale-up development as well as application development.…”

3D modeling of a double-driver ion source considering ion magnetization: an investigation of plasma symmetry modulation methods

“…Triangular and circular symbols represent the results in the cases without and with ion magnetization, respectively. Figures 6(a) and (c) present the results along intercept lines in the y-direction, and the inhomogeneity degree α is defined as α = (n max − n min )/2n ave [30], where n max , n min , and n ave refer to the maximum, minimum, and average density along the intercept line. Figures 6(b) and (d) show the results along the intercept line in the x-direction, and the asymmetry degree β is defined as β = (n I − n II )/(n I + n II ) [26], where n I and n II represent the density at x = 28 cm (n I ) and 72 cm (n II ).…”

Effect of radio frequency bias on plasma characteristics of inductively coupled argon discharge based on fluid simulations*

“…The 2D fluid module, which has been described in earlier studies, [17][18][19][20] is mainly composed of a plasma module and an electromagnetic module.…”

“…Because the distribution of plasma characteristics is vital for controlling the process of semiconductor etching, it is of great interest to elucidate the effect of bias on the plasma distributions. Therefore, in this study, the multi-physics analysis for plasma sources-ICP (MAPS-ICP) solver [17][18][19][20][21] composed of a fluid module and a sheath module [22,23] is employed to investigate the effects of single-frequency and dual-frequency bias on the plasma characteristics at different values of ICP source power. Our results provide a useful insight into the effect of source power, which can be used for optimizing the plasma processing techniques.…”