Study of asymmetrical electric discharges using particle simulation

Asymmetrical electric discharges are been widely used in the microelectronic industry. The asymmetry in the electrode areas determines the magnitude of the plasma-to-electrode voltage, V sub(a), at the powered electrode, which determines the ion bombarding energy, a critical plasma processing parameter. Two many-particle simulation codes, called P D C 1 and P D S 1, were developed. These codes are electrostatic, one-dimensional (radial) and model (a bounded plasma between two infinite cylinders or two concentric spheres that can be connected to a RLC external circuit. Both codes consider asymmetrical electrodes areas. In order to simulate electrical discharges, Monte-Carlo simulation of electron-neutral and ion-neutral collisions were included. These codes were used to study the relationship between the voltage area ratio across the sheaths, V sub(a) / V sub(b), and the electrode area ratio A sub(b) / A sub(a). Simulation results agree with experimental results and also with the analytical model that includes local ionization near the electrodes, observed to occur in almost all our simulations. (author)