Tokyo Electron Limited

Atsushi Kawabata

Shinya Morikita

Daisuke Hayashi

Masaharu Sugiyama

A substrate support for use in a reaction chamber includes a base, and an in-situ electrostatic chuck. The chuck includes a first electrode in an upper portion of the chuck that is configured to hold a wafer to an upper surface of the upper portion by a first electrostatic attractive force under a condition of a first voltage is applied to the first electrode, and a second electrode that opposes an upper surface of the base and is configured to hold the chuck to the base by a second electrostatic attractive force under a condition that a second voltage is applied to the second electrode. Under a condition that the second voltage is not supplied to the second electrode, the second electrostatic attractive force is not present and the chuck is freed to be replaced in-situ without also removing the base and without exposing the reaction chamber to external atmosphere.

Structure for automatic in-situ replacement of a part of an electrostatic chuck

A de-chuck control method is provided for de-chucking a workpiece from an electrostatic chuck, which includes a chuck electrode and electrostatically attracts the workpiece. The de-chuck control method includes acquiring a time-integration value of a current by measuring the current flowing from the chuck electrode for a predetermined time period after a plasma process is ended and a voltage applied to the chuck electrode is turned off; calculating a difference between the time-integration value of the current and an electric charge charged to the chuck electrode during the plasma process; calculating a counter voltage according to a residual charge of the electrostatic chuck based on the difference and a predetermined correlation between the time-integration value of the current and a torque acting on a support pin for supporting the workpiece; and applying the counter voltage to the chuck electrode while introducing gas into a processing chamber and generating plasma.

De-chuck control method and control device for plasma processing apparatus

In a vacuum processing chamber, an etching is performed on an object to be processed having at least a mask layer formed in a predetermined pattern and a Ti layer, as a layer to be etched, formed under the mask layer. During the etching, a first plasma processing is carried out to etch the Ti layer by using a plasma of an etching gas containing a fluorine compound at an inner pressure of the chamber of 4 Pa or less. Subsequently, a second plasma processing for dry cleaning is performed by using a plasma of a cleaning gas after the first plasma processing is completed. At this time, a deposit containing a Ti compound produced during the plasma processing is removed.

Plasma etching method

An etching method, for etching a silicon nitride film on an underlying silicon oxide film by using a hard mask whose principal component is a silicon oxide, includes a step of etching the hard mask by using the resist film as a mask to form a mask pattern therein; a step of ashing the resist film; a step of oxidizing the hard mask; a main etching step of etching the silicon nitride film by using the patterned hard mask as a mask; and a step of overetching the silicon nitride film at a high selectivity of the silicon nitride film to the silicon oxide film. The main etching step is performed after the step of forming the mask pattern in the hard mask and before the overetching step at a selectivity of the silicon nitride film to the silicon oxide film smaller than that in the overetching step.

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Miyagi, Japan

Atsushi Kawabata