Applied Materials, Inc.

Oc Oerlikon Balzers Ag

Evatec Ag

Oc Oerlikon Blazers Ag

Oc Oerlikon Balzers Ltd.

Oerlikon Advanced Technologies Ag

Bart Scholte Van Mast

Stanislav Kadlec

Juergen Weichart

Jürgen Weichart

Frantisek Balon

Holger Christ

Wolfgang Rietzler

Ruedi Schmucki

A method of processing a substrate that displays out-gassing when placed in a vacuum comprises placing the substrate in a vacuum and performing an out-gassing treatment by heating the substrate to a temperature Tand removing gaseous contamination emitted from the substrate until the out-gassing rate is determined by the diffusion of the substrate's contamination and thus essentially a steady state has been established. Afterwards, the temperature is lowered to a temperature Tat which the diffusion rate of the substrate's contamination is lower than at T. The substrate is further processed at said temperature Tuntil the substrate has been covered with a film comprising a metal.

Apparatus and method for processing a substrate

A method of magnetron sputtering, comprises rotating a magnet of a magnetron with an angular frequency &#x3c9;, and, during sputtering of material from a source of the magnetron onto a substrate, periodically modulating a power level applied to the source with at least a component comprising a frequency f which is a harmonic of the angular frequency &#x3c9; of rotation of the magnet other than the first harmonic.

Method of magnetron sputtering and a method for determining a power modulation compensation function for a power supply applied to a magnetron sputtering source

A transport method for disk-shaped semiconductor wafer workpieces has a horizontally movable transport arm with two elongated carrying elements at one end, for receiving the workpiece. A cassette which includes a comb structure at each side for receiving several workpieces, is inserted free of contact between two adjacent combs with workpieces therein for vertically lifting a workpiece. The carrying elements are disposed such that during a cassette engagement they are each positioned substantially adjacent and parallel to the comb structure along a comb, and in this region along and between two adjacent comb planes on one side of the cassette, a scanning beam is provided for workpiece acquisition. The scanning beam is relatively height-positionable with respect to the cassette and is tilted about a small angle with respect to the horizontal workpiece plane.

Transport method for disk-shaped workpieces

The invention relates to a method for positioning a wafer () with a reference mark () in a vacuum processing unit with a transport chamber containing a transport device () for moving the wafers () in a plane to a process chamber arranged on said chamber and a single sensor (), arranged within the transport chamber before the process chamber for recording the position of the wafer () by means of recording the edge thereof at a first detection point () and a second detection point (), such that the actual position of the wafer () with a known wafer diameter can be determined with electronic analysis of both measured detection points () and the transport device () guides the wafer () to a desired set position. The wafer () is aligned in a given position on the transport device () in relation to the reference marks () thereof and the projection of the reference marks () determines a non-permitted zone () along a direction of movement on the wafer () and hence defines a free zone on the remainder of the wafer (). The sensor () is arranged in the transport chamber such as to guarantee that the non-permitted zone () is not scanned and the sensor () can thus only record the circular art of the wafer edge and not parts of the reference mark ().

Method for positioning a wafer

A method and apparatus for removal of volatile contaminants from substrate surfaces before the substrate enters a process chamber. Substrate cleaning is achieved by irradiating the substrate with a low-energy electron beam. The interaction of the electrons in the beam with the contaminants present on the surface of the substrate causes evaporation of low vapor pressure species which can be deposited on the surface. A cryoshield pumps the evaporated species. After evaporation and pumping, the substrate passes through a glow discharge chamber wherein the negative surface charge created by the electron beam is neutralized using positive ions. The inventive apparatus can be configured so that no separate vacuum chamber is needed to prepare the substrate.

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Azmoos, Switzerland

Bart Scholte Van Mast