High-frequency discharges II

After the excursion into transmission techniques, we want now to discuss the electrode processes for capacitively coupled plasmas. Reactors with this coupling technique are widely used for plasma enhanced vapor deposition (PECVD) and for plasma and ion etching. They are introduced in Chaps. 10 and 11. The treatise will be on three different levels: in Sect. 6.1 on a qualitative level, in Sects. 6.2–6.6 on a semi-quantitative level, and in Sect. 14.4 on a comprehensive quantitative level which considers the most recent developments. Section 6.7 is devoted to dual-frequency discharges, the most recent development of this type of plasma generation, and Sect. 6.8 deals with scattering of ions within the sheath, a big issue in capacitively coupled discharges exhibiting a thick RF sheath, and which requires knowledge gained in all the preceding sections.