Evolution of Two-Dimensional Plasma Density on the E-H Heating-Mode Transition in Planar-Type Inductively Coupled Plasma

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasmas have two operational modes, i.e., capacitive (E) and inductive (H). In this paper, a 2-D plasma density profile was measured with gas pressures during the E-H heating-mode transition. When the discharge is transited from the E mode to the H mode, the 2-D plasma density profile was not changed at a low gas pressure, whereas the evolution of the 2-D plasma density profile was observed at a high gas pressure. These different changes with the gas pressures on the E-H heating-mode transition originated from the transition of the electron kinetics from the nonlocal kinetics to the local kinetics.