Study of non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution functions for an oxygen discharge

The effect of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) on high-density, low-pressure, oxygen discharge is investigated in this work. Some examples of the oxygen discharge applications are ashing of photoresist, removing polymer films and oxidation or deposition of thin film oxides. A global model for oxygen inductively coupled plasma (ICP) [1] was modified to include a general distribution function allowing the study of the plasma parameters as the EEDF is varied from being Maxwellian to become Druyvesteyn like. The electron density, electron temperature, and electronegativity are discussed for different values of applied power and pressure. Moreover, our results are compared with argon ICP [2], thus the main differences between electropositive plasma and electronegative plasma are studied.