Modeling of plasma processing discharges

Summary form only given. A fluid model based on the three moments of the Boltzmann equation is presented to study RF discharges. Information on electron energy distribution function and rate expressions for inelastic processes are obtained from a zero-dimensional Boltzmann equation solver. The simulation reproduces excitation waveforms seen in experiments for a 13.56-MHz argon discharge. The fluid model reproduces several critical features previously reported by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations: heating mechanisms, relation between electron power deposition and ionization, and scaling laws with RF bias as primary variable. The fluid simulations are used to show that RF capacitively coupled discharges operating at frequencies above 13.56 MHz can provide high current and electron densities comparable to other high-density discharges.