Modeling of dual frequency capacitively coupled plasma sources utilizing a full-wave Maxwell solver

The trend in dielectric etching in microelectronics fabrication with capacitively coupled plasmas is the use of multiple frequencies where a high frequency (HF, tens to hundreds of MHz) dominates ionization and a low frequency (LF, a few to tens MHz) is used to control ion energy distributions to the wafer. Process parameters, such as pressure, gas mixture and LF and HF power deposition, are important to determining the uniformity of the plasma and properties of ions incident on the wafer. In this paper, we report on a computational investigation of the consequences of these parameters on uniformity and ion energy distributions to the wafer in a dual frequency capacitively coupled plasma reactor sustained in Ar/CF4 gas mixtures. Due to the coupling of finite wavelength, electromagnetic skin, electrostatic edge and electronegative effects, there are no simple scaling laws for plasma uniformity. The plasma uniformity is ultimately a function of conductivity and energy relaxation distance of electrons accelerated by electric fields in and near the sheath. There is a strong second-order effect on uniformity due to feedback from the electron energy distributions (EEDs) to ionization sources. The trends from our parametric study are correlated with the spatial variation of the HF electric field, to the total power deposition and to the spatial variation of EEDs and ionization sources. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)