RF power distribution for helicon plasma injectors operating in a mode-transition regime with parallel connection

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given. A large-area multi-helicon plasma source for semiconductor processing has been under development. Six compact helicon sources that are located in the side of process chamber are operated in parallel and injected into a main processing chamber. All injectors are powered by a single RF source via a regular L-type matching network. Once a helicon mode transition has taken place in one of the compact helicon sources with increased RF power, the power distribution becomes unbalanced since the impedance of the helicon injector after mode transition decreases significantly and abruptly. A circuit simulation has been performed to analyze the power distribution. Experimental results will be compared with the simulation results, and a special impedance matching network for uniform RF power distribution will be proposed.