A particle‐in‐cell (PIC) simulation of an axisymmetric electron‐cyclotron‐resonance (ECR) etching tool is developed in which up to 2×106 particles per species are loaded in a two‐dimensional spatial computational mesh (r,z), along with three velocity components (vr,vθ,vz). An ECR heating scheme based on single‐particle trajectories in the resonance zone generates the simulated plasma. Electron‐ and ion‐neutral elastic and inelastic collisions are treated by a null Monte Carlo collision method. The code generates the electron and ion‐velocity distributions, plasma potentials, and densities in a CF+3/CF4 etching plasma. In addition, a novel scaling technique which bridges the gap between the ion and electron‐time scales and accelerates the rate of convergence of the code is introduced for a PIC code. The predictions of the code show that microwaves are completely absorbed before reaching the exact location of resonance.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.360144