On the physics of a large CCP discharge

Demands of the plasma processing industry gradually lead to an increase in electrode areas and driving frequency of the commonly used capacitively coupled reactors. This brings about new phenomena which differ from the well known physics of smaller capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) devices. In this work we compare experimental data and results of numerical modeling for a large CCP discharge having a GEC cell-like geometry currently studied in context of a possible use as a sputtering device. Using an electrostatic implicit particle-in-cell code with Monte-Carlo collisions (PIC/MCC), we have been capable of reproducing all main features of the experimental discharges, which have strong relevance for the processing applications, such as the plasma uniformity and the self-bias. The side chamber proves to play an essential role in defining the physics of the whole device, featuring substantial production of plasma particles and participating in establishing the self-bias due to the telegraph effect observed for higher frequencies.