Challenges in the Simulation of Vacuum Processing Hardware

Juergen Weichart1, Thomas Tschirky1
1Evatec AG, Hauptstrasse 1a, CH-9477 Trübbach, Switzerland
Published in 2023

Process Hardware for heating, etching and plasma deposition in vacuum processes on Silicon wafers or glass substrates face challenging requirements due to very shallow and extended structures. Molecular Flow calculations are used to evaluate staggered shields with the aim to protect inner parts of the chamber while at the same time providing the highest pumping speed. The optimization of microwave fields is done by COMSOL Multiphysics® with the final goal to optimize plasma distributions. The requirements also include uniform applications for heating and cooling, as well as for the deposition by sputtering, plasma etching, or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The challenges in the heat transfer are unknown radiation coefficients as well as poorly defined contact gap conditions in vacuum or by heat transmitting gas fillings like in electrostatically clamped chucks. It is shown how the experimental data are matched with the FE model.