Equipment simulation for studying the growth rate and its uniformity of oxide layers deposited by plasma-enhanced oxidation

We present for the first time an equipment simulation study for a reactor for plasma-enhanced oxidation powered by 10 individually tunable microwave sticks. The simulated dependence of the oxidation rate on the distance between the sticks and the wafer and the simulated across wafer uniformity well agree with measured data. The presented methodology allows one to study and optimize the process with respect to uniformity and growth rate for instance by adjusting the individual powers of the sticks or the geometrical configuration.