Kinetic and steady-state properties of magnetron sputter with three-dimensional magnetic field

Abstract

A kinetic code is used to simulate kinetic plasma properties in a planar magnetron system in a realistic magnetic field in two and three dimensions. We simulate the magnetron system in order to obtain various plasma characteristics and erosion profiles of a target material with these magnetic fields. Scaling formulas are used to estimate the steady-slate properties of plasma particles and to reduce computation time. Variations in the geometry and the magnetic field optimize these erosion profiles and plasma characteristics. For the plasma characteristics, we also calculate the plasma temperature and the distribution function. We found that electrons are nearly Maxwellian, while ions are net, and that the electron temperature in the bulk coincides well with the experimentally measured value.