An ion source is disclosed that utilizes a capacitive discharge to produce ignition ions, which are subsequently used to ignite an inductively coupled plasma within a plasma chamber. In some embodiments, a capacitive discharge element is located along a gas feed line at a position that is upstream of a plasma chamber. The capacitive discharge element ignites a capacitive discharge within the gas feed line. The capacitive discharge contains ignition ions that are provided to a downstream plasma chamber. An inductively coupled plasma ignition element, in communication with the plasma chamber, ignites and sustains a high density inductively coupled plasma within the plasma chamber based upon ignition ions from the capacitive discharge. Due to the ignition ions, the inductively coupled plasma element can easily ignite the high density inductively coupled plasma, even at a low pressure.