Rapid computation of time periodic steady state for simulation of capacitively coupled RF plasma

Summary form only given, as follows. In plasma process simulations, one needs to integrate over about 1500 cycles for electropositive plasmas, to reach steady state at a specified operating condition, and possibly much longer for electronegative plasmas involving slow ion-ion recombination processes. When neutral chemistry and transport are coupled to the charged species behavior, asymptotic convergence may worsen due to the large disparity in time scales between neutral and charged species, since the latter respond typically in nanosecond time scales, while the former respond in millisecond time scales. Although use of the implicit scheme relaxes time step restrictions, it is still necessary to accurately resolve the time period of imposed RF modulation to capture the cumulative electron motion which significantly affects the behavior of ions and neutrals.