Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Avi Tepman

Donald J Olgado

Howard E Grunes

Ashok K Sinha

Dan A Marohl

Robert E Davenport

Sergio Edelstein

Mei Yin Chang

Zheng Xu

John C Forster

Alexander S Polyak

Robin W Cheung

Robert B Lowrance

Michal Danek

Praburam Gopalraja

Gerald Z Yin

Jun Zhao

Charles N Dornfest

Lee Luo

Donald J K Olgado

Talex Sajoto

Stefan A Wolff

Alex Schreiber

Dan Carl

Yan Ye

Yezdi N Dordi

Dan Maydan

Ratson Morad

Jaim Nulman

Michael N Sugarman

Lawrence Chung-Lai Lei

Joseph Stevens

Ho Seon Shin

Donald M Mintz

Mark Robert Denome

James S Van Gogh

Steve S Mak

Peter W Hey

Dana L Andrews

Mani Subramani

Thomas Joseph Banholzer

George Birkmaier

Eugene Ravinovich

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Joseph Yudovsky

James S Papanu

Peter K Loewenhardt

Lawrence C Lei

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Salvador P Umotoy

Hui W Chen

Timothy Joseph Franklin

Steve G Ghanayem

Gerald Zheyao Yin

Jeng H Hwang

Gary C Ettinger

Younes Achkire

Mark Lloyd

Timothy D Driscoll

Kenneth Reese Reynolds

Haochuan Zhang

Peijun Ding

Anantha K Subramani

Sasson Roger Somekh

Alexander N Lerner

Ming Xi

Arnold Kholodenko

Alfred W Mak

Chien-Teh Kao

Akihiro Hosokawa

Bradley Owen Stimson

Xin Sheng Guo

Allen L D'Ambra

Turgut Sahin

Aihua Chen

Gwo-Chuan Tzu

Nirmalya Maity

Kenneth Tsai

Mohan K Bhan

Hooman Bolandi

Son Trinh

Yeuk-Fai Edwin Mok

Ronald Lloyd Rose

Hoa Thi Kieu

Walter Benjamin Glenn

Igor G Kogan

Russell C Ellwanger

Hiroyuki Takahama

Hien Minh Huu Le

Steve S Y Mak

James Van Gogh

Joseph J Stevens

Roy J Edwards

Debabrata Ghosh

Timothy R Webb

Sheshraj L Tulshibagwale

Akihiko Saito

Be Van Vo

Justin Jones

Homoyoun Talieh

A rectangular magnetron placed at the back of a rectangular sputtering target for coating a rectangular panel and having magnets of opposed polarities arranged to form a gap therebetween corresponding to a plasma track adjacent the target which extends in a closed serpentine or spiral loop. The spiral may have a large number of wraps and the closed loop may be folded before wrapping. The magnetron has a size only somewhat less than that of the target and is scanned in the two perpendicular directions of the target with a scan length of, for example, about 100 mm for a 2 m target corresponding to at least the separation of the gap between parallel portions of the loop. A central ferromagnetic shim beneath some magnets in the loop may compensate for vertical droop. The magnetron may be scanned in two alternating double-Z patterns rotated 90&#xb0; between them.

Method and apparatus for sputtering onto large flat panels

A sputtering coil for a plasma chamber in a semiconductor fabrication system is provided. The sputtering coil couples energy into a plasma and also provides a source of sputtering material to be sputtered onto a workpiece from the coil to supplement material being sputtered from a target onto the workpiece. Alternatively a plurality of coils may be provided, one primarily for coupling energy into the plasma and the other primarily for providing a supplemental source of sputtering material to be sputtered on the workpiece.

Coils for generating a plasma and for sputtering

A scrubber box is provided that includes a tank adapted to receive a substrate for cleaning, supports outside of the tank and adapted to couple to ends of scrubber brushes disposed within the tank, a motor mounted to each of the supports and adapted to rotate the scrubber brushes, a base to which the supports are pivotally mounted via spherical bearings adapted to permit toe-in of the scrubber brushes, a brush gap actuator adapted, via a crank and rocker mechanism, to substantially simultaneously pivot the supports toward or away from each other so as to permit the scrubber brushes to substantially simultaneously achieve or break contact with the substrate, and a toe-in actuator adapted to move two of the spherical bearings toward or away from each other so as to adjust a toe-in angle between the scrubber brushes.

Scrubber box and methods for using the same

A sputtering target, particularly for sputter depositing a target material onto large rectangular panels, in which a plurality of target tiles are bonded to a backing plate in a two-dimensional non-rectangular array such that the tiles meet at interstices of no more than three tile, thus locking the tiles against excessive misalignment during bonding. The rectangular tiles may be arranged in staggered rows or in a herringbone or zig-zag pattern. Hexagonal and triangular tiles also provide many of the advantages of the invention.

Staggered target tiles

A generally rectangular magnetron placed at the back of a rectangular target to intensify the plasma in a sputter reactor configured for sputtering target material onto a rectangular panel. The magnetron has a size only somewhat less than that of the target and is scanned in the two perpendicular directions of the target with a scan length of, for example, about 100 mm for a 2 m target. The scan may follow a double-Z pattern along two links parallel to a target side and the two connecting diagonals. The magnetron includes a closed plasma loop formed in a convolute shape, for example, serpentine or rectangularized helix with an inner pole of nearly constant width extending along a single path and having one magnetic polarity completely surrounded by an outer pole having the opposed polarity.

Two dimensional magnetron scanning for flat panel sputtering

The present invention provides an electro-chemical deposition system that is designed with a flexible architecture that is expandable to accommodate future designs and gap fill requirements and provides satisfactory throughput to meet the demands of other processing systems. The electro-chemical deposition system generally comprises a mainframe having a mainframe wafer transfer robot, a loading station disposed in connection with the mainframe, one or more processing cells disposed in connection with the mainframe, and an electrolyte supply fluidly connected to the one or more electrical processing cells. Preferably, the electro-chemical deposition system includes a spin-rinse-dry (SRD) station disposed between the loading station and the mainframe, a rapid thermal anneal chamber attached to the loading station, and a system controller for controlling the electro-chemical deposition process and the components of the electro-chemical deposition system.

Electro-chemical deposition system

In a first aspect, a first apparatus is provided for a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The first apparatus includes (1) a rotatable member; (2) an end effector adapted to receive and retain a conditioning disk; and (3) an elastic device disposed between the rotatable member and the end effector. The elastic device is (a) adapted to rotate the end effector via a torque from the rotatable member, and (b) flexibly extensible so as to impart a force to the end effector while permitting the end effector to deviate from a perpendicular alignment with the rotatable member in order for a conditioning surface of the conditioning disk to conform to an irregular polishing surface of a pad being conditioned. Numerous other aspects are provided, including methods and apparatus for using liquid or gas to deter polishing slurry or debris from entering the conditioning head.

Pad conditioning head for CMP process

Scrubber box

A semiconductor substrate centering mechanism includes a plurality of substrate support pins, each pin having a top surface. The top surfaces of the pins define a plane in which the substrate is supported. Each pin has a tab mounted eccentrically at the top surface of the pin. The tabs extend upwardly relative to the top surfaces of the pins. The centering mechanism further includes a pin rotation mechanism adapted to rotate each pin. The pin rotation mechanism rotates the pins between a first position in which the tabs define an envelope that is larger than a circumference of the substrate and a second position in which the tabs define a centered position for the substrate. A telescoping arrangement of nesting shield segments may also be provided for each pin to prevent processing fluid from reaching a shaft of the pin. In one aspect the centering mechanism is coupled to a substrate support of a substrate processing location, and thus allows a substrate to be centered as it is lowered to the processing location.

Substrate centering apparatus and method

A stable platform supports a cell, the stable platform comprises a lower mainframe, an upper mainframe, and a dampener system. The upper mainframe includes a plurality of recesses. Each recess is configured to receive a cell. The dampener system connects the lower mainframe to the upper mainframe. In one embodiment, the dampener system comprises a dampener element, such as sand, to dampen vibrations between the lower mainframe and the lower mainframe.

Stable cell platform

A polishing fluid delivery apparatus has been provided that in one embodiment includes a support member, a dispense arm, a polishing fluid delivery tube and a variable restricting device. The dispense arm extends from an upper portion of the support member and has an outlet of the delivery tube coupled thereto. The restricting device interfaces with the delivery tube and is adapted to provide a variable restriction to flow passing through the delivery tube. In another embodiment, the restricting device is a pinch valve and the tube in continuous from the outlet to beyond a portion that interfaces with the pinch valve. In yet another embodiment, the position of the delivery arm is controllable.

Slurry delivery arm

A lifting mechanism includes a plurality of lift pins which may be driven separately and independently upward to engage an alignment surface of the chamber using ambient atmospheric pressure as the chamber is evacuated by a pump. In the illustrated embodiment, each lift pin includes a piston which is exposed to the internal chamber pressure on one side of the piston, and is exposed to the external ambient pressure on the other side of the piston. As the pump evacuates the chamber, the internal chamber pressure decreases, causing each lift pin piston to drive the associated lift pin upward. Once all the lift pins have securely engaged the alignment surface, the lift pins may be clamped to a linking mechanism to permit a motor to actuate the lift pins during processing operations.

Lift pin alignment and operation methods and apparatus

Apparatus and method for cooling a magnetron sputtering apparatus. More particularly, a system including a stationary conduit, a hollow drive shaft rotatably coupled to the stationary conduit, and a magnetron coupled to the hollow drive shaft.

Cooling system for magnetron sputtering apparatus

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a clamshell and small volume chamber with a fixed substrate support. One embodiment of a processing chamber includes a fixed substrate support having a substrate receiving surface, a pumping ring disposed around a perimeter of the substrate receiving surface, and a gas distribution assembly disposed over the fixed substrate support. The pumping ring forms at least a portion of a pumping channel and has one or more apertures formed therethrough. The chamber may further include a gas-flow diffuser disposed radially inward of the apertures of the pumping ring. Another embodiment of a processing chamber includes a first assembly comprising a fixed substrate support and a second assembly comprising a gas distribution assembly. The first assembly includes a first assembly body that is shaped and sized so that at least a portion of the first assembly body is below the substrate receiving surface of the substrate support. A hinge assembly couples the first assembly and the second assembly. The first assembly and the second assembly can be selectively positioned between an open position and a closed position.

Clamshell and small volume chamber with fixed substrate support

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Avi Tepman