3D effects in the simulations of the magnetized DC plasma sources for ion implantation.

Fluid, hybrid and kinetic plasma modeling approaches are widely used to simulate industrial plasma sources for semiconductor processing. Fluid and hybrid codes are typically better suited to simulate inductively coupled plasmas. However, simulations of capacitively couple plasmas and magnetized plasmas typically require kinetic codes. Specifically, kinetic simulations allow more accurate resolution of cross-field plasma diffusion and study of rotational plasma dynamics for the magnetized DC plasmas. The downside of kinetic simulations is a limitation to two dimensions due to high computational cost and therefore inability to explore three-dimensional effects for industrial plasma source design. In this presentation, we will discuss an application of 3D kinetic model to simulate an operation of the hot cathode magnetized DC plasma source for ion implantation at reduced scale. Specifically, we will address the problem of plasma ignition, plasma rotation and control of electron energy distribution function. We will also compare 2D and 3D simulation results and discuss applicability limits of two-dimensional model for this problem.