Fast Simulation Strategy for Capacitively-Coupled Plasmas Based on Fluid Model

Abstract

Fluid simulations are widely used in optimizing the reactor geometry and improving the performance of capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) sources in industry, so high computation speed is very important. In this work, a fast method for CCP fluid simulation is developed, which includes a multi-time-step explicit upwind scheme to solve electron fluid equations, a semi-implicit scheme and an iterative method with in-phase initial value to solve Poisson’s equation, an explicit upwind scheme with limited artificial diffusion to solve heavy particle fluid equations, and an acceleration method based on fluid equation modification to reduce the periods required to reach equilibrium. By comparing with the well-developed program Multi-Physics Analysis of Plasma Sources (MAPS), the validity and high efficiency of the newly developed method has been proved. Besides, the performance of each acceleration method is tested, and the results indicated that the multi-time-step explicit Euler scheme can effectively decline the computational burden in the bulk plasma and reduce the time cost on the electron fluid equations by half. The in-phase initial value method can greatly decrease the iteration times required to solve linear equations and lower the computational time of Poisson’s equation by 77%. The acceleration method based on equation modification can reduce the periods required to reach equilibrium by two-thirds.

Keywords: capacitively coupled plasma, fluid model, fast simulation