I. M. El-Fayoumi and I. R. Jones

Department of Physics, Flinders University of South Australia
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, 5001 South Australia
Ibrahim.El-Fayoumi@flinders.edu.au

Inductively coupled RF plasma sources (ICPs) are capable of producing steady-state plasma having number densities lying in the range 10(superscript)10 to 10(superscript)13 cm(superscript)-3, that is, significantly higher than those attainable in a capacitively coupled plasma reactor.

When the induction coil of an ICP is powered by means of an RF source, the RF current passing through the coil produces, by Faraday's law, an oscillating induced electric field which is capable of maintaining a plasma within the reactor chamber. In practice, the operation of the ICP has two stable modes, one is called E-mode and the other is called H-mode. The H-mode discharge is characterized by a high electron number density which makes it useful for plasma processing.

In this paper, we discuss the interaction between the external RF circuit and the H-mode discharge. Use is made of an electromagnetic theory [1], which was developed to describe the operation of a planar-coil inductively coupled RF plasma source. Experimental observations of stable operating points are qualitatively compared with those predicted by a combination of circuit analysis and electromagnetic theory.

[1] El-Fayoumi I M and Jones I R "Theoretical and experimental investigations of the electromagnetic field within a planar coil, inductively coupled RF plasma source". Accepted for publication in Plasma Sources Sci. Technol (1998).