Modeling and diagnostics of a microwave plasma resonant cavity reactor used for diamond film deposition

Summary form only given. The use of microwave discharges for the plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of films has proven to be a successful technique for several applications including the deposition of diamond films. The overall goal of this study is the improvement of microwave plasma deposition machines for deposition applications by a combined approach of experimental diagnostic measurements and numerical model simulations. The objective of this study is to measure and model a microwave plasma processing machine. The specific machine studied is a 13 cm diameter discharge microwave plasma reactor used for diamond CVD deposition. The key processes studied include the electromagnetic excitation of the plasma and the gas phase chemistry which is dominated by hydrogen. An electromagnetic field simulation model is used to solve for the microwave excitation fields in the plasma reactor. The electromagnetic fields are modeled in two dimensions using a finite-difference, time-domain method to solve Maxwell´s equations. The plasma description is a fluid model solution of the plasma which includes a model of hydrogen/methane plasma dynamics. The gas phase chemistry of the hydrogen/ methane mixture is also modeled in this effort.