Numerical Simulation: Effects of Gas Flow and Rf Current Direction on Plasma Uniformity in an ICP Dry Etcher

Effects of gas injection scheme and rf driving current configuration in a dual turn inductively coupled plasma (ICP) system were analyzed by 3D numerical simulation using CFD-ACE+. Injected gases from a tunable gas nozzle system (TGN) having 12 horizontal and 12 vertical nozzles showed different paths to the pumping surface. The maximum velocity from the nozzle reached Mach 2.2 with 2.2 Pa of Ar. More than half of the injected gases from the right side of the TGN were found to go to the pump without touching the wafer surface by massless particle tracing method. Gases from the vertical nozzle with 45 degree slanted angle soared up to the hottest region beneath the ceramic lid between the inner and the outer rf turn of the antenna. Under reversed driving current configuration, the highest rf power absorption region were separated into the two inner islands and the four peaked donut region.