AVS 47th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuM

Paper PS-TuM7
Electron Transport and Power Deposition in Magnetically Enhanced Inductively Coupled Plasmas@footnote 1@

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 10:20 am, Room 311

Session: Modeling of Plasma Processes
Presenter: R.L. Kinder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Authors: R.L. Kinder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.J. Kushner, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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The ability to deposit power within the volume of the plasma in Magnetically Enhanced Inductively Coupled Plasmas (MEICP) strongly depends on the magnetic field strength and configuration. The coupling of electromagnetic fields to the plasma typically occurs through a weakly damped helicon wave that penetrates into the bulk plasma and an electrostatic wave (the TG-mode). The TG-mode may penetrate into the plasma at low magnetic fields but deposits most its power near the plasma-surface interface at high magnetic fields. Under select conditions, the phase velocity of the helicon wave is similar to the thermal velocities of electrons which enables power deposition through collisionless heating. To investigate these processes, the Hybrid Plasma Equipment Model (HPEM) was improved by including a full tensor conductivity and electrostatic source terms in solution of Maxwell's equations, and by including 3-d components of the electric field in the electron Monte Carlo Simulation to resolve electron energy distributions (EEDs). Plasma parameters, wave propagation and location of power deposition will be discussed for process relevant gases (e.g. Ar/Cl@sub 2@, Ar/CF@sub 4@) as a function of magnetic field strength, configuration, and power. In the absence of the TG mode, with increasing B-field, electric field propagation progressively follows B-field lines and significant power can be deposited downstream. The tails of the EEDs are enhanced in the downstream region indicating some amount of electron trapping. Volumetric power deposition is ultimately limited by damping of the TG mode and the helicon wavelength. Wave propagation can be suppressed in electronegative gas mixtures where the wavelength exceeds the chamber dimension. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@Work supported by LAM, AMAT, SRC, NSF and DARPA/AFOSR.