Abstract
Discharge characteristics of inductively coupled plasma were investigated by using electrostatic probe and fluid simulation. The Inductively Coupled Plasma source driven by 13.56 Mhz was prepared. The signal attenuation ratios of the electrostatic probe at first and second harmonic frequency was tuned in 13.56Mhz and 27.12Mhz respectively. Electron temperature, electron density, plasma potential, electron energy distribution function and electron energy probability function were investigated by using the electrostatic probe. Experiment results were compared with the fluid simulation results. Ar plasma fluid simulations including Navier-Stokes equations were calculated under the same experiment conditions, and the dependencies of plasma parameters on process parameters were well agreed with simulation results. Because of the reason that the more collision happens in high pressure condition, plasma potential and electron temperature got lower as the pressure was higher and the input power was higher, but Electron density was higher under the same condition. Due to the same reason, the electron energy distribution was widening as the pressure was lower. And the electron density was higher, as close to the gas inlet place. It was found that gas flow field significantly affect to spatial distribution of electron density and temperature.
