Fluid Simulation of Capacitively Coupled HBr/Ar Plasma for Etching Applications

In this work, a fluid model has been applied to study HBr/Ar capacitively coupled plasma discharges that are being used for anisotropic etching process. Based on time average reaction rates, the model identify the most dominant species in HBr/Ar plasma. Our simulation results show that the neutral species like H and Br, which are the key precursors in chemical etching, have bell shape distribution while ions like HBr⁺, Br⁺ and Ar⁺ which plays a dominant role in the physical etching, have double humped distribution and shows peaks near electrodes. The effect of HBr/Ar mixing ratios on densities of dominant species are analyzed. The addition of Ar to HBr plasma decreases H, Br and HBr⁺ densities slightly while increases Br⁺ and Ar⁺ densities. It was found that the dilution of HBr by Ar results in an increase in electron density and electron temperature, which results in more ionization and dissociation. The densities and hence the fluxes of the neutrals and positive ions for etching and subsequently chemical etching versus physical etching in HBr/Ar plasmas discharge can be controlled by tuning Ar concentration in the discharge and the desire etching can be achieved.