• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2011

Recently, multi-hole electrode RF capacitively coupled plasma discharge is being used in the deposition of microcrystalline silicon for thin film solar cell to increase the speed of deposition. To make efficient multi-hole electrode RF capacitively coupled plasma discharge, the hole diameter is to be designed concerning the plasma parameters. In past studies, the relationship between plasma parameters such as pressures and gas species, and hole diameter for efficient plasma density enhancement is experimentally shown. In the presentation, the relationship between plasma deriving frequency and hole diameter for efficient multi-hole electrode RF capacitively coupled plasma discharge is shown. In usual capacitively coupled plasma discharge, plasma parameter, such as plasma density, plasma impedence and plasma temperature, change as frequency increases. Because of the change, the optimum hole diameter of the multi-hole electrode RF capacitively coupled plasma for high density plasma is thought to be modified when the plasma deriving frequency changes. To see the frequency effect on the multi-hole RF capacitively coupled plasma is discharged and one of its electrode is changed from a plane electrode to a variety of multi-hole electrodes with different hole diameters. The discharge is derived by RF power source with various frequency and the plasma parameter is measured with RF compensated single Langmuir probe. The shrinkage of the hole diameter for efficient discharge is observed as the plasma deriving frequency increases.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2012

The indirect-contact ECG measurement is a newly developed method for unconstrained and nonconscious measurement in daily Life. This study is the first step to reducing the large background noise appearing in indirect-contact ECG. This study built the thermal noise model of capacitively coupled active electrode which is used in indirect-contact ECG. The results show that the level of thermal noise estimated by the thermal noise model is much the same as that of actual background noise for the capacitively coupled active electrode alone. By applying the actual electrical properties of a sample cotton cloth to the thermal noise model, the theoretical level of thermal noise in the indirect-contact ECG was estimated. The results also show that the level of op-amp's intrinsic noise is so small that it can be negligible in comparison with thermal noise of resistors. The relationship between the level of thermal noise and the resistance of the bias resistor was derived, and it is the base for the further study how to choice the optimal resistance for the bias resistor.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.39-43
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• 2014

The effect of electrode charging on the ion energy distribution (IED) was investigated in the dual-frequency capacitively coupled plasma source which was powered of 100 MHz RF at the top electrode and 400 kHz bias on the bottom electrode. The charging property was analyzed with the distortion of the measured current and voltage waveforms. The capacitance and the resistance of electrode sheath can change the property of ion and electron charging on the electrode so it is sensitive to the plasma density which is controlled by the main power. The ion energy distribution was estimated by equivalent circuit model, being compared with the measured distribution obtained from the ion energy analyzer. Results show that the low frequency bias power changes effectively the low energy population of ion in the energy distribution.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.102-110
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• 2015

Fluid model based numerical analysis is done to simulate a plasma processing system with electrodes at floating potential. $V_f$ is a function of electron temperature, electron mass and ion mass. Commercial plasma fluid simulation softwares do not provide options for floating electrode boundary value condition. We developed a user subroutine in CFD-ACE+ and compared four different cases: grounded, dielectric, zero normal electric field and floating electric potential for a 2D-CCP (capacitively coupled plasma) with a ring electrode.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.322-326
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• 2011

Etch process of silicon dioxide layer by using capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) is currently being used to manufacture semiconductor devices with nano-scale feature size below 50 nm. In typical CCP plasma etcher system, plasmas are generated by applying the RF power on upper electrode and ion bombardment energy is controlled by applying RF power to the bottom electrode with the Si wafer. In this case, however, etch results often drift due to heating of the electrode during etching process. Therefore, controlling the temperature of the upper electrode is required to obtain improvement of etch repeatability. In this work, we report repeatability improvement during the silicon dioxide etching under extreme process conditions with very high RF power and close gap between upper and bottom electrodes. Under this severe etch condition, it is difficult to obtain reproducible oxide etch results due to drifts in etch rate, critical dimension, profile, and selectivity caused by unexpected problems in the upper electrode. It was found that reproducible etch results of silicon dioxide layer could be obtained by controlling temperature of the upper electrode. Methods of controlling the upper electrode and the correlation with etch repeatability will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.118-123
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• 2023

Partially magnetized capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) sources are investigated using a two-dimensional kinetic simulation code named EDIPIC-2D. A converging numerical solution was obtained for CCP with a 60 MHz power source, while properly capturing the dynamics of electrons and power absorption over a single RF period. The effects of magnetic fields with different orientations were evaluated. Axial magnetic fields caused changes in the spatial distribution of plasma density, affecting the loss channel. Transverse magnetic fields enhanced stochastic heating near the powered electrode, leading to an increase in plasma density while the significant E×B drift loss compensated for this rise.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.31-37
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• 2009

This paper presents one and two dimensional simulation results with discontinuous features (shocks) of capacitively coupled rf plasmas. The model consists of the first two and three moments of the Boltzmann equation for the ion and electron fluids respectively, coupled to Poisson's equation for the self-consistent electric field. The local field and drift-diffusion approximations are not employed, and as a result the charged species conservation equations are hyperbolic in nature. Hyperbolic equations may develop discontinuous solutions even if their initial conditions are smooth. Indeed, in this work, secondary electron emission is shown to produce transient electron shock waves. These shocks form at the boundary between the cathodic sheath (CS) and the quasi-neutral (QN) bulk region. In the CS, the electrons emitted from the electrode are accelerated to supersonic velocities due to the large electric field. On the other hand, in the QN the electric field is not significant and electrons have small directed velocities. Therefore, at the transition between these regions, the electron fluid decelerates from a supersonic to a subsonic velocity in the direction of flow and a jump in the electron velocity develops. The presented numerical results are consistent with both experimental observations and kinetic simulations.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.4C no.5
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• pp.220-229
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• 2004

We have examined a technique of one-dimensional (1D) fluid modeling for radio-frequency Ar capacitively coupled plasmas (CCP) between unequal-sized powered and grounded electrodes. In order to simulate a practical CCP reactor configuration with a grounded side wall by the 1D model, it has been assumed that the discharge space has a conic frustum shape; the grounded electrode is larger than the powered one and the discharge space expands with the distance from the powered electrode. In this paper, we focus on how much a 1D model can approximate a 2D model and evaluate their comparisons. The plasma density calculated by the 1D model has been compared with that by a two-dimensional (2D) fluid model, and a qualitative agreement between them has been obtained. In addition, 1D and 2D calculation results for another reactor configuration with equal-sized electrodes have also been presented together for comparison. In the discussion, four CCP models, which are 1D and 2D models with symmetric and asymmetric geometries, are compared with each other and the DC self-bias voltage has been focused on as a characteristic property that reflects the unequal electrode surface areas. Reactor configuration and experimental parameters, which the self-bias depends on, have been investigated to develop the ID modeling for reactor geometry with unequal-sized electrodes.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.357-365
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• 2014

A non-invasive method for ion energy distribution measurement at a RF biased surface is proposed for monitoring the property of ion bombardments in capacitively coupled plasma sources. To obtain the ion energy distribution, the measured electrode voltage is analyzed based on the circuit model which is developed with the linearized sheath capacitance on the assumption that the RF driven sheath behaves like a simple diode for a bias power whose frequency is much lower than the ion plasma frequency. The method is verified by comparing the ion energy distribution function obtained from the proposed model with the experimental result taken from the ion energy analyzer in a dual cathode capacitively coupled plasma source driven by a 100 MHz source power and a 400 kHz bias power.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.513-514
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• 2005

In plasma processing reactors, it is common practice to control plasma density and ion bombardment energy by manipulating excitation voltage and frequency. In this paper, a dually excited capacitively coupled rf plasma reactor is self-consistently simulated with a three moment model. Effects of phase differences between primary and secondary voltage waves, simultaneously modulated at various combination of commensurate frequencies, on plasma properties are investigated. The simulation results show that plasma potential and density as well as primary self-dc bias are nearly unaffected by the phase lag between the primary and the secondary voltage waves. The results also show that, with the secondary frequency substantially lower than the primary frequency, secondary self-dc bias remains constant regardless of the phase lag. As the secondary frequency approaches to the primary frequency, however, the secondary self-dc bias becomes greatly altered by the phase lag, and so does the ion bombardment energy at the secondary electrode. These results demonstrate that ion bombardment energy can be more carefully controlled through plasma simulation.