Abstract: We attempt to investigate the influence of the processing chamber configuration of an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etcher on flow field characteristics.Four parameters,including chamber radius,chamber height,inlet radius,and inlet mass flow,are arranged regression orthogonally to study the two-dimensional flow field models of the processing chamber of the ICP etcher,which was built in the commercial software,CFD-ACE+.A function is defined to evaluate the uniformity of the pressure distribution above the electrostatic chuck.The quantificational relation between key parameters and the uniformity of pressure distribution was found through regression analysis of experimental results,and,furthermore,a quadric regression equation with high fitting degree was determined.The result demonstrates that the chamber height is the most significant factor.The results from the regression equation agree well with those from simulation.This research can provide insight into the study and design configuration of etchers,chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment,and oxidation/diffusion systems that are similar in configuration and processing condition.

Key words: inductively coupled plasma, regression orthogonal design, CFD-ACE+, processing chamber