Abstract

Compensated electric probe has been designed and constructed to measure plasma parameters such as electron temperature (T<inf>e</inf>), electron and ion density (n<inf>e</inf>, n<inf>i</inf>) and floating potential (v <inf>f</inf>) of the RF planar coil inductively coupled plasma source (ICP). Probe's tip is made of molybdenum of 0.8 mm in diameter and 1.95 cm in length. RF choke, consist of L and G, is connected adjacent to the probe's tip to reduce RF current drawn to the probe by fluctuating field in the plasma. RC lowpass niters are utilized in the measuring setup to reduce noised radiated from surrounding instruments. Argon (Ar) plasma is generated and maintained inside a cylindrical chamber by the induction fields from a planar-shape coil connected through a matching network to a 13.56 MHz RF generator, Measurements are made at different probe's position, gas pressure and RF power. T <inf>e</inf> is found to be between 2 - 9 eV at different conditions. However, at H mode T<inf>e</inf> is nearly constant at about 5 eV.