GENERALIZED ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF INDUCTION LOOP PROBES IN AZIMUTHALLY SYMMETRICAL INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA SOURCES

Using B-dot probes Meyer et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 79, 1298 (1996)] have described a method for calculating the azimuthal current, electric fie ld, plasma permittivity, and electron density in a planar inductively coupled plasma source. They assume the phases associated with the time rate of change of the radial and axial field components to be the sam e. Furthermore, they restrict their analysis to the situation where th e phase is independent of radius. We demonstrate that the phases for t he two field directions are different. The subsequent modified forms f or the plasma properties considered by Meyer et al. are presented. We also show that their procedure can be extended to cover phases which a re an arbitrary function of position, and for completeness, give forms for the generalized plasma properties. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.