Browsing by Author "Gibson, Andrew Robert"

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    Concepts, Capabilities, and Limitations of Global Models: A Review
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2016) Hurlbatt, Andrew; Gibson, Andrew Robert; Schröter, Sandra; Bredin, Jérôme; Foote, Alexander Paul Stuart; Grondein, Pascaline; O'Connell, Deborah; Gans, Timo
    For researchers wishing to generate an understanding of complex plasma systems, global models often present an attractive first step, mainly due to their ease of development and use. These volume averaged models are able to give descriptions of plasmas with complex chemical kinetics, and without the computationally intensive numerical methods required for spatially resolved models. This paper gives a tutorial on global modeling, including development and techniques, and provides a discussion on the issues and pitfalls that researchers should be aware of. Further discussion is provided in the form of two reviews on methods of extending global modeling techniques to encompass variations in either time or space.
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    Power coupling mode transitions induced by tailored voltage waveforms in capacitive oxygen discharges
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2017) Derzsi, Aranka; Bruneau, Bastien; Gibson, Andrew Robert; Johnson, Erik; O’Connell, Deborah; Gans, Timo; Booth, Jean-Paul; Donkó, Zoltán
    Low-pressure capacitively coupled radio frequency discharges operated in O2 and driven by tailored voltage waveforms are investigated experimentally and by means of kinetic simulations. Pulse-type (peaks/valleys) and sawtooth-type voltage waveforms that consist of up to four consecutive harmonics of the fundamental frequency are used to study the amplitude asymmetry effect as well as the slope asymmetry effect at different fundamental frequencies (5, 10, and 15 MHz) and at different pressures (50-700 mTorr). Values of the DC self-bias determined experimentally and spatio-temporal excitation rates derived from phase resolved optical emission spectroscopy measurements are compared with particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collisions simulations. The spatio-temporal distributions of the excitation rate obtained from experiments are well reproduced by the simulations. Transitions of the discharge electron heating mode from the drift-ambipolar mode to the μ-mode are induced by changing the number of consecutive harmonics included in the driving voltage waveform or by changing the gas pressure. Changing the number of harmonics in the waveform has a strong effect on the electronegativity of the discharge, on the generation of the DC self-bias and on the control of ion properties at the electrodes, both for pulse-type, as well as sawtooth-type driving voltage waveforms The effect of the surface quenching rate of oxygen singlet delta metastable molecules on the spatio-temporal excitation patterns is also investigated.
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    The role of thermal energy accommodation and atomic recombination probabilities in low pressure oxygen plasmas
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2017) Gibson, Andrew Robert; Foucher, Mickaël; Marinov, Daniil; Chabert, Pascal; Gans, Timo; Kushner, Mark J.; Booth, Jean-Pau
    Surface interaction probabilities are critical parameters that determine the behaviour of low pressure plasmas and so are crucial input parameters for plasma simulations that play a key role in determining their accuracy. However, these parameters are difficult to estimate without in situ measurements. In this work, the role of two prominent surface interaction probabilities, the atomic oxygen recombination coefficient γ O and the thermal energy accommodation coefficient α E in determining the plasma properties of low pressure inductively coupled oxygen plasmas are investigated using two-dimensional fluid-kinetic simulations. These plasmas are the type used for semiconductor processing. It was found that α E plays a crucial role in determining the neutral gas temperature and neutral gas density. Through this dependency, the value of α E also determines a range of other plasma properties such as the atomic oxygen density, the plasma potential, the electron temperature, and ion bombardment energy and neutral-to-ion flux ratio at the wafer holder. The main role of γ O is in determining the atomic oxygen density and flux to the wafer holder along with the neutral-to-ion flux ratio. It was found that the plasma properties are most sensitive to each coefficient when the value of the coefficient is small causing the losses of atomic oxygen and thermal energy to be surface interaction limited rather than transport limited.