AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Plasma Science and Technology Thursday Sessions
       Session PS-ThP

Paper PS-ThP14
Time-resolved Fast Imaging of the Arcing in RF Discharge

Thursday, November 12, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Plasma Science Poster Session
Presenter: Y.H. Kim, KAIST, Korea
Authors: Y.H. Kim, KAIST, Korea
H.S. Lee, KAIST, Korea
H.Y. Chang, KAIST, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Arcing have become a fatal problem in TFT-LCD fabrication, semiconductor manufacturing, PECVD, and many other processes using plasma. Although modern plasma processing is using rf power, the arcing in rf plasma isn't well-known. We investigated the arcing in RF plasma. In order to generate the arcing, the dc-grounded rf (13.56 Mhz) power was delivered to argon plasma. The arcs are generated at high plasma potential (over 100 V), irregularly. We measured floating potential, discharge current and voltage during the arcing, and sparks were observed in arcing spots. Floating potential drastically decreased to almost ground potential, and both discharge current and voltage decreased to almost zero, too. As soon as floating potential decreased to ground, floating potential, discharge current and voltage return to steady state slowly more than decrease. These arcing signals show that the arcing perturb the rf plasma and that rf plasma transiently response. The discharge of sheath-capacitor by collective electron emission explain the transient behavior of plasma during the arcing. And, to confirm the collective electron emission, we imaged the arcing by using the ICCD (intensifed charge coupled device, ANDOR Technology Ltd.) camera with the maximum gate speed of 2ns. We checked the three regions in the aring. These are sheath breakdown region, arcing duration region and shaeth rebuilding region.