Plasma-Surface Interactions and Feature Profile Simulations

Plasma-surface interactions are rather complex in most cases. One has to take into account not only sticking of gaseous species from plasma to the surface of solid materials or a set of chemical reactions on the surface producing solid and gaseous products, but also interactions of atoms within deeper layers of the material. Etching, deposition, and implantation processes usually go on at the same time. Energetic particles, such as ions or fast neutrals, could penetrate and etch materials even in conditions when significant polymer layers are present. Here, we present a 2D and 3D feature profile simulator FPS3D which is based on the cellular model and takes into account finite penetration depths of energetic particles. It can also do simulations for very delicate conditions, such as ALD, when materials are deposited only by a single atomic layer at a time. Using cells each containing a single molecule could introduce significant errors into calculations as sizes of molecules could differ significantly, and thus we are using a different approach trying to mimic MD simulations with various approximations and on a larger scale. The code is applicable to nanometer through micrometer range of features, at least, and it is fast both for 2D and 3D simulations.