Driving frequency effect on the electron energy distribution function in capacitive discharge under constant discharge power condition

A modern trend of VHF driven plasma sources in semiconductor processing stimulates a lot of studies concerning the driving frequency effect on plasma parameters in a capacitive discharge. In spite of abundant studies, the validation and application of these results in industrial plasma processing are still questionable because these studies were performed under a fixed rf voltage condition or an assumption of Maxwellian electron energy distribution, while the fixed discharge power condition and non-Maxwellian distribution are typical in industrial plasma processing. To resolve this problem, the authors investigated the driving frequency effect on plasma parameters (electron density and temperature) under the fixed discharge power condition by measuring the electron energy distribution functions, which are the most important factor in chemical reactions during the plasma processing. A remarkable result was observed—as the driving frequency increases, the electron temperature increases and the electron density remains almost constant or decreases, which is opposite to what previous studies have suggested. This result can be tentatively explained as a result of an enhancement of collisional heating in the bulk plasma with driving frequency under the fixed discharge power condition.