Glow discharge modeling

Up until the early 1990s, simulations that solved for the radio frequency (RF) plasma dynamics (so-called glow discharge models) were confined to one spatial dimension (1-D) [36, 113-126]. In addition, most of these simulations did not solve for the transport and reaction of neutrals, i.e., the effect of gas excitation and/or dissociation on the plasma characteristics was not accounted for. This can sometimes be a severe limitation since even minute quantities of excited species can alter the discharge properties [36]. Self-consistent RF plasma simulations which solve for the coupled effects of charged and neutral species transport and chemistry have only been reported within the past several years in 1-D [36, 121, 123], 2-D [97, 100, 127-132] and 3-D [109, 110]. Multidimensional simulations are particularly useful since they can address the important issue of plasma uniformity and the spatiotemporal plasma... 

Vieth and Huneke have recendy presented a thorough discussion of GDMS quantitation, including the measurement of relative GDMS sensitivity factors and a modeling of glow-discharge source processes to enable semiempirical estimates of... 

FIC Ratio Model. The fluorine-to-carbon ratio (F/C) of the active species can be used (92) to explain the observed etch results (Figure 8). This model does not consider the specific chemistry occurring in a glow discharge but, rather, views the plasma as a ratio of fluorine species to carbon species that can react with a silicon surface. The generation or elimination of the active species by various processes or gas additions then modifies the initial F/C ratio of the inlet gas. 

Clearly, there are many approximations in this model, so close agreement with experimental data should not be expected. It is interesting, however, to consider some relevant experimental data.17 In these experiments, peak-to-peak and DC bias voltages were measured for a 13.56-MHZ RF glow discharge confined within a reactor chamber with two electrodes of unequal area. Using a... 

Models and calibration in methods involving glow-discharge sampling... 

Park, S.K. and Economou, D.J. (1990) Analysis of Low-Pressure rf-Glow Discharges Using a Continuum Model. /. Appl. Phys., 68, 3904-3915. 

Van Straaten M., Vertes A. and Gijbels R. (1991) Sample erosion studies and modeling in a glow discharge ionization cell, Spectrochim Acta, Part B 46 283-280. 

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