A feedback model of magnetron sputtering plasmas in HIPIMS

作者：Ross A E^*; Ganesan R; Bilek M M M; McKenzie D R

来源：Plasma Sources Science and Technology, 2015, 24(2): 025018.

DOI：10.1088/0963-0252/24/2/025018

• HIPIMS
• magnetron plasmas
• sputtering plasmas
• model
• feedback

We present a 1D feedback model that captures the essential elements of plasma pulse initiation and is useful for control and diagnostics of sputtering plasmas. Our model falls into the class of single-species population models with recruitment and time delay, which show no oscillatory behaviour. The model can reproduce essential features of published time-current traces from plasma discharges and is useful to determine the key parameters affecting the evolution of the discharge. We include the external circuit and we focus on the time evolution of the current as a function of the applied voltage and the plasma parameters. We find the necessity of a nonlinear loss term in the time-dependent plasma ion population to ensure a stable discharge, and we show that a higher secondary electron emission coefficient reduces the time delay for current initiation. We report that I-V characteristics in the plateau region, where it exists, fit a power curve of the form I = kV(n), where n is influenced most strongly by the nonlinear loss term.

• 出版日期2015-4