One-dimensional Particle-based Kinetic Simulations of DC and RF gas breakdown

Anomalous breakdown is detrimental to the quality of plasma processing for semiconductor manufacture. In this study, to understand the physical processes of the gas breakdown, we conducted one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with a Monte Carlo collision algorithm (PIC-MCC) considering ion-induced secondary electron emission and field emission. We further implemented a numerical algorithm to automatically obtain the breakdown voltage. First, the simulation is verified against the DC Paschen theory, which indicates that the energy loss treatment is important to capture the Paschen curve. Second, we verified the simulation results against the Paschen curve considering the field emission that is particularly important for micro-discharges. The simulation results are in good agreement with the analytical solution. Last, the simulation is applied to study RF breakdown. We will discuss the RF breakdown in which multi-valued breakdown voltages are observed for a given pressure.