Case Study: AltaSim Technologies achieves advanced CCP plasma modeling with COMSOL Multiphysics

Increasing Productivity and Revenue with Computational Applications

AltaSim Technologies, a Columbus, Ohio engineering firm, faced the challenge of accurately modeling capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) processes used in microelectronic etching and deposition. The multiphysics nature of CCPs — including dynamic plasma sheaths, strong electric-field gradients, non‑Maxwellian electron behavior, and many RF cycles to steady state — creates numerical instability and mesh-accuracy issues. AltaSim addressed this problem using Comsol’s COMSOL Multiphysics software.

Using COMSOL Multiphysics, AltaSim performed one‑ and two‑dimensional simulations of low‑frequency RF discharges in axisymmetric CCP reactors, precomputing electron transport properties and Townsend coefficients with a two‑term Boltzmann approximation. The Comsol-based models captured ion number density over time, electron temperature in the sheath, and electron density in the plasma for both Maxwellian and non‑Maxwellian cases, enabling reliable analysis of sheath behavior and informing the development of new CCP processing technology.

AltaSim Technologies

Jeff Crompton

Co-founder and Principal