Reactor modeling of magnetically enhanced capacitive RF discharge

Magnetic and collisional effects on capacitive radio frequency (RF) discharges for magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching (MERIE) are investigated. Using simplified plasma and sheath models, a collisional magnetic-sheath equation that governs the sheath dynamics under a de magnetic field crossed with a sinusoidal RF electric field is obtained. The sheath equation includes global effects of the bulk plasma. Together with the power-balance equation and the particle-conservation equation, the sheath equation is used to extract a circuit model and predict the electrical behavior of MERIE reactors. Numerical results on the plasma density and the power in MERIE reactors agree well with reported experimental results and the circuit model describes the repeated discharge properties well.