A Two-dimensional Steady State Simulation Study on the Radio Frequency Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma

Two-dimensional steady state simulations of planar type radio frequency inductively coupled plasma (RFICP) have been performed. The characteristics of RFICP were investigated in terms of power transfer efficiency, equivalent circuit analysis, spatial distribution of plasma density and electron temperature. Plasma density and electron temperature were determined from the equations of ambipolar diffusion and energy conservation. Joule heating, ionization, excitation and elastic collision loss were included as the source terms of the electron energy equation. The electromagnetic field was calculated from the vector potential formulation of ampere's law. The peak electron temperature decreases from about 4eV to 2eV as pressure increases from 5 mTorr to 100 mTorr. The peak density increases with increasing pressure. Electron temperatures at the center of the chamber are almost independent of input power and electron densities linearly increase with power level. The results agree well with theoretical analysis and experimental results. A single turn, edge feeding antenna configuration shows better density uniformity than a four-turn antenna system at relatively low pressure conditions. The thickness of the dielectric window should be minimized to reduce power loss. The equivalent resistance of the system increases with both power and pressure, which reflects the improvement of power transfer efficiency.