PiCHY: A GPU Parallelized PIC-MCC Simulator for Actual 300 mm Reactor

Plasma simulations are widely used for plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) [1]. Among the various methods used for plasma simulation, the particle-in-cell method stands out as a highly accurate approach. However, it is important to acknowledge that this method also presents challenges due to slow computational speed and the incorporation of chemical reactions. An in-house GPU parallelized Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo collision (PIC-MCC) program named “PiCHY” was developed in order to simulate a 300 mm reactor with gas mixture for Torr-order pressure. Implemented in cylindrical geometry without numerical heating near r=0, PiCHY uses DNT+ [2] to handle a variety of ion collisions, including elastic, inelastic, and charge exchange. In the Ar/H₂ capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) simulation, electrons and 5 positive ions are considered as charged species, and 44 electron and 41 ion collision cross-sections are used as input. As far as we know, this is the first PIC simulation of gas mixture CCP in a 300 mm reactor. Simulation results, e.g., density, temperature, and energy-angle distribution function at the wafer surface for each charged species, will be demonstrated at the conference. PiCHY is practical and useful for R&D of plasma equipment.