Plasma etching is one of the critical steps in manufacturing of integrated circuits. The plasma equipment requires further optimization especially since new generations in technology require different plasma chemistry. We will show how modeling of plasmas needs to apply the new data for radicals that may change the nature of plasma if present in large amounts, typically of the order of 1% and more. The radicals dominate attachment of electrons as the basic etching mixture is weakly electronegative and they also affect the drift velocity through modified momentum balance. We have used numerical solutions to the Boltzmann equation and Monte Carlo simulations to determine the transport coefficients of electrons and we have applied the expanded cross section data in particle in cell type of simulations to show how properties of plasma change when significant amounts of radicals are generated.
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