Plasma and BIAS Modeling: Self‐Consistent Electrostatic Particle‐in‐Cell with Low‐Density Argon Plasma for TiC

Abstract

We motivate our study by simulating the particle transport of a thin film deposition process done by PVD (physical vapor deposition) processes. In this paper we present a new model taken into account a self‐consistent electrostatic‐particle in cell model with low density Argon plasma. The collision model are based of Monte Carlo simulations is discussed for DC sputtering in lower pressure regimes. In order to simulate transport phenomena within sputtering processes realistically, a spatial and temporal knowledge of the plasma density and electrostatic field configuration is needed. Due to relatively low plasma densities, continuum fluid equations are not applicable. We propose instead a Particle‐in‐cell (PIC) method, which allows the study of plasma behavior by computing the trajectories of finite‐size particles under the action of an external and self‐consistent electric field defined in a grid of points.