Probe diagnostics in a full wave resonator radio-frequency discharge

G. K. Vinogradov,a) V. M. Menagarishvili, and S. Yoneyama

MC Electronics Co., Ltd., 907-8, Shimoimasuwa, Shirane-cho, Nakakomagun, 400-02 Yamanashi, Japan
~Received 6 March 1997; accepted 23 March 1998!
A full wave or lambda resonator ~l-R! is a capacitively balanced radio-frequency ~rf! inductive
plasma source. It has three separate inductive excitation zones with opposite magnetic momenta
strictly located at their axial positions. The 2 kW, 27 MHz, 1.4 Torr pressure discharge in oxygen
was studied by means of movable single rf compensated fine cylindrical Langmuir probes. Flat wall
probes were also used to reveal the distribution of positive ion flux and floating potentials on the
chamber wall. The electron density in the l-R discharge varies from 107 – 108 cm23 at 5–10 mm
distance from the wafer to 231011 cm23 in the central plasma toroid. One of the main problems of
the probe operation is high gas temperature of ;1500 K in the plasma toroid and high-power
dissipation on the probe surface. That is why not only fine cylindrical but also 100–130 mm diam
spherical probes were used. The probe technique and preliminary results are presented. © 1998
American Vacuum Society. @S0734-2101~98!60103-2#

I. INTRODUCTION II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

There is a variety of inductive plasma sources utilized by
industry in the last decade. Correspondingly, there are nu-
merous publications about plasma parameters of the dis-
charges. Mainly, the inductive discharges aimed to produce
high-density plasmas at a very low pressure of about
1023 – 1024 Torr for etching and deposition microelectronics
equipment. Plasma parameters in different plasma sources
are essentially determined by the mechanisms of energy
deposition. For instance, a conventional source with a cylin-
drical spiral and helicon sources with nonspiral applicators
have different configurations of electromagnetic fields1,2 and,
hence, different distributions of dissipated radio-frequency
~rf! power. Therefore, it is hardly possible to predict a priori
all practical features of different plasma sources.
A novel plasma source, a full wave helical resonator or
lambda resonator ~l-R!, has been developed and manufac-
tured for damage critical fast plasma processes. The first ap-
plication is realized as a single 200 mm wafer quasidown-
stream asher l-Strip 3000. ~l-3000 is a product of MC
Electronics Co., Ltd.! However, the explicit plasma physics
of the discharge is unknown.
The discharge has essentially a three-dimensional internal
inductive/capacitive symmetric/antisymmetric orthogonal
structure. To the best of our knowledge such a structure,
having three independent plasma toroids with opposite mag-
netic momenta connected by capacitive currents,3 had not
been reported previously.
Here, we present preliminary results on probe diagnostics
of the l-R discharge; mainly of its central high plasma den-
sity inductive zone. The measurements were carried out un-
der conditions of relatively high gas pressure and high
plasma density with very fine probes. The details of the
probe measuring technique and experimental results are pre-
sented.
a!
Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail:
100510.3707@compuserve.com
The l-R plasma source has been described previously.3,4
The basic configuration of the recent experimental setup is
shown in Fig. 1. Both ends of the inductor coil are connected
to the cylindrical grounded copper shield. The reactor dimen-
sions and positioning of electrostatic probes is indicated. The
downstream chamber is made of aluminum. The 0.005–2.25
kW rf power at 26–28 MHz frequency was supplied to the
resonator by using a 50 V coaxial cable directly from the
wideband tube amplifier ~IFI-410! with a sign wave signal
generator HP-8648A. The rf power absorbed in the resonator
was measured with a Bird reflectometer. The plasma source
has energy efficiency up to ;99.9% and operates without
any matching elements. It was directly measured neglecting
heat losses in the coaxial; the resonator itself has a quality
factor Q of 2360. So, high-energy efficiency is typical since
the plasma is practically the only load absorbing rf power in
the resonator. The device responsible for the main losses in
any conventional inductively coupled plasma case is a
matching box typically absorbing 20%–60% of the total rf
power.5 A feedback loop control was implemented in order
to keep the input rf voltage on the plasma source constant to
suppress very low-frequency fluctuations of the discharge
parameters brought about by heat-ionization instabilities.
A wafer support platen is located at 120-mm-distance be-
low the bottom ground end of the coils. Standard discharge
conditions were: 1.4 Torr O2 pressure; 3 slm gas flow rate;
and 2 kW discharge power at 27 MHz unless otherwise
stated. Argon discharges were examined in several cases as
well.
Several kinds of electrostatic probes, as shown in Fig. 2,
were used in this study. The cylindrical Langmuir probes
were made of ~1–1.5!-mm-long 20-mm-diam Pt wire. The
spherical Pt probes are of about 100-mm-diam and have a
short 20-mm-diam leg. The Langmuir probes were inserted
into the discharge tube from the downstream chamber. The
probes can be moved along the tube radius by way of turning
the probe input shaft having a sealing O ring or using a

1444 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 16„3…, May/Jun 1998 0734-2101/98/16„3…/1444/5/$15.00 ©1998 American Vacuum Society 1444
1445 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: Probe diagnostics in a full wave resonator rf discharge
FIG. 1. Lambda resonator discharge apparatus, a schematic cross-sectional
view. Langmuir probe position in the plasma toroid and flat wall probes on
the bottom flange, chamber wall, and wafer platen are indicated.
horizontal step motor drive. A calibration of the probe posi-
tion in the vicinity of the wall has been done to assure rea-
sonable precision within the plasma-surface sheath area. The
probes can touch the wall.
The spherical Langmuir probes were used in the plasma
toroid channel because it was difficult to maintain a high
electron saturation current on the cylindrical probes at the
plasma potential: they usually melted. The tiny sphere probes
withstand a high-temperature environment much better.
FIG. 2. Fine platinum probes ~a! and ~b!: quartz capillaries are 70–90 mm
diam; and flat wall probe ~c!, cross section. Probes are shown in different
scales.
JVST A - Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films
1445
The leg of the spherical probe was about 150 mm long in
order to avoid any sphere shading by the quartz capillary.
The leg area is about 10% of the sphere area and it increases
the probe area. However, this short leg is essentially shaded
by the capillary. So, we estimate the effective collecting ratio
leg/sphere to be no more than 5% of the total. The experi-
ments showed that the shorter legs noticeably decrease the
probe current due to the shading effect. The spheres were
almost perfect in shape, so we estimate an error on the area
calculation to be less than 18%. The shading effect of the
fine capillary on the shortest 1 mm cylindrical probes is less
than 3% and can be neglected.
About 60–80 mm diam quartz capillaries of the cylindri-
cal probes were 15 mm long. This portion of the probe rep-
resents a coaxial capacitor with plasma as an external elec-
trode. The estimated capacitance, neglecting the Debay
sheath in the high plasma density toroid, is about 2–3 pF,
which is high enough to additionally shunt the probe sheath
at high rf and increase efficiency of the rf blocking filter.
Small low-capacitance ~;0.02 pF! resistors of 10–20 kV
value were used as the blocking filters in the probe line. Such
filters were used by Godyak and Popov6 in a low plasma
density rf discharge. The resistor filter has a negligible stray
capacitance to ground, since it was inside the discharge vol-
ume, and a very small series capacitance of about 0.03 pF.
The coaxial cable receives the probe signal from the filter
and then goes outside to be terminated by several low-
capacitance LC filters in order to completely suppress the rf
component but still keep the frequency response at a reason-
able level while measuring a dc probe current of about 10
nA. Then, the signal comes to the data acquisition system
having additional low-capacitance filters. The sensitivity of
the probe measuring system is 5–7 nA at 30 s total sweep
time in the ~2100 to 140! V range of probe voltages. Faster
sweeps bring about a noticeable hysteresis to the I – V char-
acteristics in the case of very low plasma density in the
downstream chamber.
The efficiency of the probe rf blocking filters is deter-
mined by the product of two independent factors: ~1! the
ratio of the impedances of the filtering element in parallel
with a stray capacitance to the probe capacitive sheath im-
pedance; and ~2! the ratio of the electron temperature ex-
pressed in electronvolts to the amplitude of rf fluctuations of
the plasma potential.6–8 We found that the blocking effi-
ciency is high enough under our particular conditions. The
capacitive sheath of the Langmuir probe at the floating po-
tential was experimentally estimated using cylindrical probes
of different length9 to be about 1 kV in a downstream after-
glow plasma, while it decreases at least ten times in the
high-density plasma toroid. The probes were operating under
the favorable conditions of a very thin low impedance ca-
pacitive probe sheath with the rf voltage amplitude on the
probe sheath of less than 0.5–1 V. For instance, the distance
between the maximum and minimum of the second deriva-
tive of the probe I – V in a 1-kW, 2-Torr Ar discharge was
1.1 V, which is evidence of low rf distortion.10,11
The 5-mm-diam flat probe used in this study is similar to
1446 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: Probe diagnostics in a full wave resonator rf discharge
the one used for deposition and etching.9 Linear arrays of
five and ten similar probes were used as well. The probes
have 30 mm dielectric separator made of mica. Such a little
gap prevents electric breakdowns through the gas by decreas-
ing the P3d ~where P is the gas pressure and d is the gap!
product in correspondence with Pashen’s law.
The I – V characteristics were recorded using a data acqui-
sition system based on a PC board DAP-1200e by Microstar
Labs having an on-board programmable CPU with DASYLAB
software by DASYTEC. In the case of differentiating, the
I – V curves were smoothed using the Savitsky–Golay algo-
rithm or adjacent averaging.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The l-R discharge plasma interacts with the current and
voltage standing waves distributed along the inductor. Due to
the antiphase voltage half waves, the capacitive current in-
ductor ground at the discharge resonance frequency of 27
MHz is canceled in the central plane of the plasma source.
This condition depends on the rf balancing the electrical
length of the spiral transmission line to the one full wave-
length.
The remarkable plasma phenomena and the discharge
structure including the appearance of ball plasmoids and
plasma toroids were described in Refs. 3 and 4 for 10–50-
Torr-pressure argon discharges. The totally developed l-R
argon discharge structure consist of three bright essentially
contracted plasma toroids located at the center and end
planes of the inductor and a diffuse capacitive plasma in the
bulk. The capacitive plasma is generated by the currents
flowing between the rf voltage standing-wave maxima.
There is some interconnection between the inductive and ca-
pacitive currents, which can be even visualized under some
conditions. The central toroid plays a role of a virtual ground
electrode in the discharge. Thus, the l-R discharge plasma
represents a large volume rigid three-dimensional structure.
The central plasma toroid absorbs inductive power from a
half-lambda central part of the coil. The two secondary in-
ductive toroids can get only half the power in comparison
with the central toroid since they are each inductively fed
from the quarter-wave parts. The 27 MHz, 2 kW-rf-power,
1.4 Torr oxygen discharge produces a single inductive
plasma toroid located at the center of the plasma source.
Secondary side oxygen plasma toroids can be initiated at an
essentially higher power of 4–4.5 kW in order to overcome
very high resistive losses typical for oxygen plasmas.
First probe measurements in the center of a 1 kW 1 Torr
Ar discharge were carried out using the cylindrical 20 mm Pt
probe. The electron density at the discharge axis was mea-
sured to be 4.531011 cm23, the electron temperature 1.7 eV,
and the plasma potential was 11 V. However, it was difficult
to measure the electron density in the plasma toroid channel
because of the probe’s melting. Since the local electron den-
sity is about directly proportional to the specific discharge
power, and the density in the toroid is about four times
higher than on the axis, we assume the electron density in the
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 16, No. 3, May/Jun 1998
1446
FIG. 3. Langmuir probe I – Vcharacteristic severely distorted above the
plasma potential and having a ‘‘swan neck’’ shape; the first derivative is
also shown.
plasma toroid of the 2 kW Ar discharge is to be of the order
of 531012 cm23.
Since we are using very fine probes typical for the probe
diagnostics of 1–5 Torr pressure molecular glow
discharges,12 it might not be a problem to use a reference
electrode. There is '5000 cm2 area downstream metal
chamber contacting to a large afterglow plasma. The typical
ratio of the chamber area to that of the probe is on the order
of 107 – 108 , which should be quite enough in comparison
with the recommended ratio for electropositive gas dis-
charges: 103 – 104 , 13 even taking into consideration a large
difference of the local plasma density in the toroid and
downstream chamber. The reference electrode for electrone-
gative gas discharges may be smaller than that for electrop-
ositive plasmas since it must sink essentially a smaller ion
current corresponding to the smaller electron saturation cur-
rent.
However, our chamber could not be used as the reference
electrode in the case of measurements in the central high-
density plasma toroid: the probe I – V characteristics were
severely distorted, as shown in Fig. 3. The I – V have notice-
able hysteresis and a local maximum of the probe current
above the plasma potential, which looks like a ‘‘swan neck.’’
The first derivative of the probe current on the probe voltage
is essentially broadened and even looks rather like a second
derivative crossing the voltage axis.
We did not study the detailed mechanism of such strange
behavior of the I – V characteristic. Certainly, the chamber
~reference! sheath itself is not responsible for the ‘‘swan
neck.’’ If the conductivity of the chamber sheath was too
low, the probe saturation current would be decreased due to
an additional voltage drop on the reference sheath, but it
never could be smaller at higher probe potentials than at
lower. Another factor affecting the probe I – V is the finite
plasma conductance between the probe and the reference.13
This effect, however, cannot create a maximum as well, be-
cause the plasma impedance between the probe and chamber
is constant. Hence, there are some second-order factors in-
volved. For example, the shape of the toroidal conductive
1447 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: Probe diagnostics in a full wave resonator rf discharge
FIG. 4. Radial distributions of plasma space and floating potentials and
efficient electron temperatures derived from the probe I – V ~see the expla-
nation in the text!.
channel can be affected electrostatically so that it changes
the interaction with the probe. The source plasma can be
easily affected by a dc potential applied to the toroid as this
plasma is almost dc insulated from ground.
A 131 cm2 reference electrode made of Ni was inserted
in the toroid and connected to ground through a series of rf
chokes and a dc voltage source supplying 8–9 V dc potential
in order to set the dc current biased by the reference to zero.
The ‘‘swan neck’’ immediately disappeared from the I – V. It
proves that the probe sheath itself is not responsible for the
‘‘swan neck.’’ All further measurements inside the plasma
source were carried out with the same reference electrode
immersed into the plasma toroid.
Figure 4~a! shows radial distributions of V pl and V f po-
tentials in the plasma toroid as measured with the spherical
probe of about 130 mm diam. There is approximately a 5 V
potential well inside the toroid. The floating potential V f has
a similar radial dependence as the plasma space potential
V pl . The potential well is generated by the requirement of
the charge balance between the ions and mobile electrons
diffusing from the toroidal channel.
The plasma potential decreases close to the tube surface
since the toroidal current tends to maximize the area of the
absorbed rf magnetic flux, thus creating a very thin wall
sheath. The floating potential V f on the wall contacting the
toroid is about 14 V, hence, the electric sheath near the tube
wall is about 16 V. The difference (V pl2V f ) does not no-
ticeably depend on the radial position.
Figure 4~b! shows the effective electron temperatures
derived from the same probe I – V using different methods.
JVST A - Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films
1447
FIG. 5. Second derivatives of the probe I – V characteristics measured at the
top ~a! and bottom ~b! of the potential well at the plasma toroid plane of an
oxygen discharge. The derivatives close to the discharge axis show a strong
depletion of electrons having characteristic energies of about 4–6 and 8–10
eV, typical for oxygen discharges.
The results are not unusual for a non-Maxwellian electron
energy distribution function ~EEDF!. The solid marks
indicate the effective kT e calculated from the equation:
(V pl2V f )5kT e 3ln(I e /I 1 ). 13 Even under a high negative
ion density condition this formula seems to provide reason-
able results. The lowest temperatures were determined from
the slope of the logarithm of the electron current near the V f ,
and the highest temperatures were, typically at 3–5 V below
V pl .
The second derivatives ( @ m A/V2# ) of the probe current on
the probe potential, which are directly proportional to the
EEDF, clearly show that the EEDF is far from Maxwellian
type. The EEDF is very broad and has more than one local
maximum ~minimum!. Figure 5 shows examples of second
derivatives obtained at the top edge and bottom of the poten-
tial well to show their evolution. The characteristic features
of the second derivatives are well established with a large
number of probe measurements at different locations over
the plasma source. The derivatives in the well show electron
depletion at about 14 and ~5–12! V probe potentials. The
electrons diffuse from the toroid toward the discharge axis
losing kinetic energy in numerous inelastic collisions,1 de-
creasing the low- and middle-energy part of the EEDF. The
work on analyzing the EEDF is in progress.
To estimate the electron density with the probes we used
an effective electron temperature derived from the floating
potential, which fit well between the limit values shown in
1448 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: Probe diagnostics in a full wave resonator rf discharge
FIG. 6. Radial distribution of: ~a! electron and ion saturation probe currents;
~b! electron and ion densities and the ratio N 1 /N e in the central plasma
toroid.
Fig. 4~b!. A systematic error of the electron density due to an
error in kT e does not exceed 630%.
The ion density exceeds the electron density 10–30 times
in our oxygen discharge. Consequently, we used the ion tem-
perature limit for the ion drift velocity to calculate the posi-
tive ion density from the ion saturation current.14,15 The ion
temperature is assumed to be equal to ;0.1 eV.
Figure 6~a! shows the probe saturation currents measured
at V pl and V f . The shapes of both radial distributions are
very similar. The electron and ion densities are shown in Fig.
6~b!. These values are typical for high-density plasmas.
The axial electron density is decaying from 1011 cm23 in
the plasma toroid down to 109 cm23 at the lower end of the
inductor corresponding to a 121 mm distance from the wafer
platen. The azimuthal distributions of the floating potential
and ion saturation current density on the circular flange sur-
face, which is 50 mm below the inductor, were measured by
the flat probes. There is some systematic nonuniformity of
both distributions. The surface floating potential varies from
21 to 14 V, while the ion current density from 10 to
2.5 uA/cm2. This area is very sensitive to any rf electric field
originating from the plasma source, since the overall rf
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 16, No. 3, May/Jun 1998
1448
power deposited here is very low so the plasma impedance is
relatively high.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Single Langmuir probe measurements utilizing fine cylin-
der and sphere probes were carried out in a 235-mm-i.d.
Lambda resonator rf inductive discharge having a push–pull
antisymmetric capacitively balanced structure.
The electron density in the central plasma toroid is about
231011 cm23, while the negative ion density exceeds
331012 cm23. The electrons generated in the high current
density toroidal channel diffuse toward the discharge axis,
thus generating a potential well. The EEDF is substantially
non-Maxwellian with a high depletion of low- ~0–3 eV! and
middle- ~;8–10 eV! energy electrons. There is a remarkable
difference between the EEDF inside and outside the potential
well.
The oxygen plasma toroid is essentially dc insulated from
the downstream ground chamber. It is very sensitive even to
100 mA current biased by a fine probe. The reference elec-
trode must be inserted into the toroidal plasma channel in
order to measure undisturbed Langmuir probe characteristics
there.
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