The density of transistors continues to increase, which requires the manufacturing of microchips to have a high degree of accuracy. To achieve this, the industry uses plasma based atomic layer etching and deposition processes for the modification of the microchip. However, they use a large amount of energy that releases greenhouse gases that harm the environment. As such, this thesis investigates the effect of varying several input parameters on the input energy per particle fluxed to the surface. This is achieved by utilising a zero-dimensional plasma chemical-kinetics numerical global model with an extensive chemical-radiative reaction scheme to model a cylindrical pulsed powered inductively coupled Ar/O₂ plasma reactor.
The energy per Ar⁺ fluxed, in a 100% argon plasma, increases minimally with frequency, decreases with duty cycle and reaches a minimum with pressure at 1 Pa and is constant with average power. Additionally, in a 90% argon 10% oxygen plasma, the energy per atomic oxygen fluxed decreases with pressure and increases with average power. Furthermore, the energy per ground and excited states of atomic oxygen fluxed are generally similar to each other. The energy per O⁺ fluxed decreases with average power and reaches a minimum in pressure, which shifts to higher pressures as the average power increases. The energy per O⁺₂ fluxed reaches a minimum at 5 Pa and increases with average power.
In conclusion, for Ar⁺ the energy can be decreased using a high duty cycle and a low pressure of 1 Pa. For atomic oxygen, the energy can be decreased using high pressure and low average power. For O⁺ the energy can be decreased by increasing the average power and selecting the pressure with optimal surface flux. Finally, for O⁺₂ the energy can be decreased using a pressure of 5 Pa and increasing the average power.
