High energy electron fluxes in dc-augmented capacitively coupled plasmas I. Fundamental characteristics

Power deposition from electrons in capacitively coupled plasmas (CCPs) has components from stochastic heating, Joule heating, and from the acceleration of secondary electrons through sheaths produced by ion, electron, or photon bombardment of electrodes. The sheath accelerated electrons can produce high energy beams which, in addition to producing excitation and ionization in the gas can penetrate through the plasma and be incident on the opposite electrode. In the use of CCPs for microelectronics fabrication, there may be an advantage to having these high energy electrons interact with the wafer. To control the energy and increase the flux of the high energy electrons, a dc bias can be externally imposed on the electrode opposite the wafer, thereby producing a dc-augmented CCP (dc-CCP). In this paper, the characteristics of dc-CCPs will be discussed using results from a computational study. We found that for a given rf bias power, beams of high energy electrons having a narrow angular spread $(<1°)$ can be produced incident on the wafer. The maximum energy in the high energy electron flux scales as $εmax=−Vdc+Vrf+Vrf0$⁠, for a voltage on the dc electrode of $Vdc$⁠, rf voltage of $Vrf$⁠, and dc bias on the rf electrode of $Vrf0$⁠. The dc current from the biased electrode must return to ground through surfaces other than the rf electrode and so seeks out a ground plane, typically the side walls. If the side wall is coated with a poorly conducting polymer, the surface will charge to drive the dc current through.