The transport of sputtered aluminum inside a multi frequency capacitively coupled plasma chamber is simulated by means of a kinetic test multi-particle approach. A novel consistent set of scattering parameters obtained for a modified variable hard sphere collision model is presented for both argon and aluminum. An angular dependent Thompson energy distribution is fitted to results from Monte Carlo simulations and used for the kinetic simulation of the transport of sputtered aluminum. For the proposed configuration the transport of sputtered particles is characterized under typical process conditions at a gas pressure of p=0.5 Pa. It is found that -- due to the peculiar geometric conditions -- the transport can be understood in a one dimensional picture, governed by the interaction of the imposed and backscattered particle fluxes. It is shown that the precise geometric features play an important role only in proximity to the electrode edges, where the effect of backscattering from the outside chamber volume becomes the governing mechanism.
The highly advanced treatment of surfaces as etching and deposition is mainly enabled by the extraordinary properties of technological plasmas. The primary factors that influence these processes are the flux and the energy of various species, particularly ions, that impinge the substrate surface. These features can be theoretically described using the ion energy distribution function (IEDF). The article is intended to summarize the fundamental concepts of modeling and simulation of IEDFs from simplified models to self-consistent plasma simulations. Finally, concepts for controlling the IEDF are discussed.
