| AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology Division | Friday Sessions |
| Session PS-FrM |
| Session: | Plasma Modeling |
| Presenter: | Nate Crossette, Tech-X Corporation |
| Authors: | N.P. Crossette, Tech-X Corporation T.G. Jenkins, Tech-X Corporation D.N. Smithe, Tech-X Corporation J.R. Cary, Tech-X Corporation |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Simulations provide a means of virtually prototyping devices before building expensive physical prototypes. Virtual prototyping by means of simulation has the additional advantage of allowing rapid testing of parametric and configurational modifications. In this study, we use the highly parallelized particle-in-cell/finite-difference time-domain modeling code VSim [1] to model a 2D planar cylindrical magnetron sputtering chamber. The magnetic field of a set of permanent magnets is determined by means of a magnetostatic solver and imported into the simulation. Particle-wall interactions include sputtering and secondary electron emission. Monte Carlo interactions model collisions within the chamber. We test the effects of modifying the external circuitry on the formation of the glow discharge inside the device. We consider constant voltage and constant current circuitry. Constant current circuitry is modeled by feeding back absorbed currents from the plasma to the walls into the determination of the cathode potential. In some models we include the capacitance of the chamber, which is calculated from simulation.
1. C. Nieter and J. R. Cary, “VORPAL: a versatile plasma simulation code”, J. Comp. Phys. 196, 2004, pp. 448-473.
* Work supported by U.S. Department of Energy, SBIR Phase II award DE-SC0015762