Numerical modeling of an atmospheric pressure micro glow discharge

Summary form only given. Atmospheric pressure micro glow discharge of the cold type has been generated in our laboratory. Plasma discharge is generally maintained at low pressure for deposition processes in the semiconductor industries. The present glow discharge will be used for chemical deposition thereby reducing the operation and the maintenance cost by many folds. A hybrid model has been developed to simulate the atmospheric pressure DC argon micro glow discharge consisting of five species (neutral, meta-stables, ions and electrons). The simulations will help to obtain detailed time dependent physico-chemical characteristics of the discharge. The equations solved are particle balances for all the species assuming a drift-diffusion approximation for the fluxes, momentum equation for the mass averaged species, and energy balance equation for the neutral species. The electric field is obtained from the simultaneous solution of the Poisson´s equation. The electron induced reaction rates and the electron temperature are obtained by solving a zero-dimensional Boltzmann equation based on the local-field approximation. Two dimensional simulations were carried out for a pin-plate electrode configuration together with an external circuit. The predicted voltage-current characteristics and current density identifies the discharge to be a normal glow discharge. The neutral gas temperature predictions indicate that the discharge forms a non-thermal, non-equilibrium plasma. Predictions from the numerical model compare favorably with experimental studies