Properties of argon/oxygen mixture plasmas driven by multiple internal-antenna units

Properties of argon/oxygen mixture plasmas sustained with multiple low-inductance internal-antenna (LIA) units have been investigated in terms of plasma parameters and ionic species impinging onto substrates as a function of oxygen partial pressure ratio R p = P O 2 / ( P A r + P O 2 ) , where P O 2 is the partial pressure of oxygen, and PAr is the partial pressure of argon. With increasing Rp the ion saturation current decreased while the variation of the electron temperature was insignificant. The plasma potential increased from as low as 9 V at Rp = 1% to 11–15 V with increasing Rp above 10%. The O2+ ion energy distribution showed that the ion energies in the argon/oxygen mixture plasmas sustained with the LIAs are as low as or less than 15 eV, whereas the peak energy increased with increasing Rp.