Diagnostic of capacitively coupled radio frequency plasma from electrical discharge characteristics: comparison with optical emission spectroscopy and fluid model simulation

The capacitively coupled radio frequency (CCRF) plasma has been widely used in various fields. In some cases, it requires us to estimate the range of key plasma parameters simpler and quicker in order to understand the behavior in plasma. In this paper, a glass vacuum chamber and a pair of plate electrodes were designed and fabricated, using 13.56 MHz radio frequency (RF) discharge technology to ionize the working gas of Ar. This discharge was mathematically described with equivalent circuit model. The discharge voltage and current of the plasma were measured at different pressures and different powers. Based on the capacitively coupled homogeneous discharge model, the equivalent circuit and the analytical formula were established. The plasma density and temperature were calculated by using the equivalent impedance principle and energy balance equation. The experimental results show that when RF discharge power is 50–300 W and pressure is 25–250 Pa, the average electron temperature is about 1.7–2.1 eV and the average electron density is about 0.5×10¹⁷ – 3.6×10¹⁷ m^-3. Agreement was found when the results were compared to those given by optical emission spectroscopy and COMSOL simulation.