Coupled hydrodynamic and electrodynamic modelling of an transformer coupled plasma (TCP) for semiconductor processing

A planar transformer coupled plasma source (TCP) as used for semiconductor processing was characterised theoretically and experimentally. In this paper the homogeneity of the plasma in dependence of process pressure and coil configurations was investigated. Simulations for noble gas discharges in a wide pressure range were compared with theoretical data from a reactor model. A 2D-fluid plasma model coupled self-consistently with an electrodynamic model was used to calculate the theoretical results. Experiment and simulation show very good agreement for a wide range of parameters.