Lam Research Corporation

Other

Brett C Richardson

Michael S Barnes

Tuan Ngo

Harmeet Singh

Keith William Gaff

Vincent M Wong

Sung Lee

Christopher H Olson

Farro Frank Kaveh

John Patrick Holland

Duane Outka

Roger Patrick

Jason Augustino

William Frederick Bosch

Tamarak Pandhumsoporn

Andrew Lui

James C Vetter

Norman Williams

Farro F Kaveh

Gautam Bhattacharyya

Scott Baldwin

Patrick Chung

Quan Chau

Rajesh Dorai

David Setton

Ann Chien

Sterling M Goyer

Philip Tuley

Merrill D Crapse

Hanh Tuong Ha

A portable coffee brewing system includes a top housing containing a pump and a tube. Portable coffee brewing system also includes a basket housing having a punch operatively connected to the top housing and having a receiving member; the basket housing having a receiving member configured to receive a basket. The basket being capable of holding a coffee grounds holding device which is capable of holding coffee grounds. A nozzle is attached to the lower part of the basket to create an opening for fluid to flow through. The system providing a user with a means of brewing coffee by inserting a coffee grounds holding device into a basket. A punch within the basket punctures the coffee grounds holding device; the basket then being operably connected to the rest of the system so fluid can move through the system when the system is activated to brew coffee or other beverages.

Portable coffee brewing device

An electrostatic chuck includes an embedded electrode receiving a first voltage to electrostatically attract a semiconductor substrate to the electrostatic chuck. A plurality of current loops are disposed in at least one of the electrostatic chuck and an edge ring surrounding the electrostatic chuck. The current loops are laterally spaced apart. Each current loop is a wire formed into a loop. One or more DC power sources are electrically connected to the current loops. A controller supplies the first voltage to the embedded electrode, supplies a DC current to the current loops from the power sources, and controls the power sources. Each current loop is independently operable and generates a localized DC magnetic field proximate to the semiconductor substrate on receiving the DC current during plasma processing of the semiconductor substrate to adjust the plasma processing of the semiconductor substrate. The localized DC magnetic field does not generate plasma.

Systems and methods for correcting non-uniformities in plasma processing of substrates

An edge ring assembly is provided, including: an upper edge ring configured to surround an electrostatic chuck (ESC), the ESC having a top surface for supporting a substrate and an annular step surrounding the top surface, the annular step defining an annular shelf that is lower than the top surface, the upper edge ring being disposed above the annular shelf; a lower inner edge ring disposed below the upper edge ring in the annular step and disposed over the annular shelf, the lower inner edge ring being defined from an electrically conductive material, the lower inner edge ring being electrically insulated from the ESC; a lower outer edge ring surrounding the inner edge ring, the lower outer edge ring being disposed below the upper edge ring in the annular step and disposed over the annular shelf, the lower outer edge ring being defined from an electrically insulating material.

Edge ring assembly for improving feature profile tilting at extreme edge of wafer

A component of a substrate support assembly such as a substrate support or edge ring includes a plurality of current loops incorporated in the substrate support and/or the edge ring. The current loops are laterally spaced apart and extend less than halfway around the substrate support or edge ring with each of the current loops being operable to induce a localized DC magnetic field of field strength less than 20 Gauss above a substrate supported on the substrate support during plasma processing of the substrate. When supplied with DC power, the current loops generate localized DC magnetic fields over the semiconductor substrate so as to locally affect the plasma and compensate for non-uniformity in plasma processing across the substrate.

Component of a substrate support assembly producing localized magnetic fields

A portable coffee brewing device includes a lid pivotally connected to an upper end of the container by a hinge and button. A heating element housing and an electrical component housing is connected to a lower end of the container. A drain is positioned in a bottom wall of the container and is fluidly connected to a heating element positioned within the heating element housing. The heating element is controlled by electrical components positioned in the electrical components housing. A drip tube is fluidly connected to the heating element and the lid. A single serve coffee holding device is positioned below the lid. When the container is filled with fluid and the heating element is powered, heated fluid is forced up the drip tube through the passageway in the lid and into the coffee grounds holding device in a continuous cycle. The device is connectable to an external power source.

Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for determining wear of a consumable part in a semiconductor processing apparatus. One chamber includes a reference part, a consumable part, a transfer arm for transferring the substrate into the chamber, a sensor on the transfer arm, and a controller. The reference part is not subject to wear during operation of the chamber, while the consumable part is subject to wear. The sensor is configured to measure a first distance from the sensor to a surface of the consumable part as the transfer arm travels near the consumable part, and the sensor is configured to measure a second distance from the sensor to a surface of the reference part as the transfer arm travels near the reference part. The controller determines the wear amount of the consumable part based on the first distance and the second distance.

Wear detection of consumable part in semiconductor manufacturing equipment

An insulated dielectric window assembly comprising a dielectric window of an inductively coupled plasma processing apparatus; an upper polymeric ring, and a lower polymeric ring. The upper polymeric ring insulates the outer edge of the dielectric window from a cooler ambient atmosphere and the lower polymeric ring insulates the lower surface of the dielectric window from a chamber surface supporting the window.

Insulated dielectric window assembly of an inductively coupled plasma processing apparatus

A lower electrode assembly for use in a plasma processing chamber comprises a metal base and upper and lower edge rings. The metal base comprises metal plates brazed together and forming a brazed line on a lower side surface of the base, an edge ring support surface extending horizontally inwardly from the lower side surface and an upper side surface above the edge ring support surface. The upper edge ring comprises a lower surface mounted on the edge ring support surface and the lower edge ring surrounds the lower side surface of the base with a gap between opposed surfaces of the upper and lower edge rings and between the lower edge ring and the outer periphery of the base. The gap has an aspect ratio of total gap length to average gap width sufficient to impede arcing at the location of the braze line.

Lower electrode assembly of plasma processing chamber

An arrangement for processing a semiconductor substrate in a plasma processing system is disclosed. The arrangement includes providing a RF coupling structure having a first terminal and a second terminal, the first terminal being coupled with a first electrical measuring device, the second terminal being coupled with a second electrical measuring device. The arrangement also includes coupling a compensating circuit to the second terminal. The arrangement further includes providing a feedback circuit coupled to receive information from the first electrical measuring device and the second electrical measuring device, an output of the feedback circuit being employed to control the compensating circuit in order to keep a ratio between a first electrical value at the first terminal and a second electrical value at the second terminal substantially at a predefined value.

Methods and apparatus for optimizing a substrate in a plasma processing system

A method involving plasma cleaning of deposit residues in process chamber using duo-step wafer-less auto clean method is detailed. Specifically, the method involves cleaning the processing chamber by flowing a first gaseous composition with at least about 75% of fluorine-containing compound of the formula XF, into a processing chamber and then forming a first etchant plasma which removes silicon and silicon based byproducts from the interior surfaces of the processing chamber. The method then involves flowing a second gaseous composition into the processing chamber with a composition of at least about 50% Oand forming a plasma from the second gaseous composition to provide a second etchant plasma which removes carbon and carbon based byproducts from the interior surfaces of the processing chamber. A system configured to execute the two step cleaning process is also provided.

Plasma cleaning of deposition chamber residues using duo-step wafer-less auto clean method

This invention relates to a method of oxide hardmask aluminum etching in metal dry etch processors. It consists of two steps: the step of dry etching an aluminum interconnect stack by using an etch gas composed mainly of boron trichloride/chlorine/fluoroform/nitrogen, and the step of removing etch remnants by using a vapor plasma. The function of the etch gas is to etch the aluminum interconnection pattern in the semi-conductor, and the function of the water vapor plasma is to prevent the corrosion of a chip during the process of removing etch remnants, which will further reduce water rinsing and solution cleaning as in conventional practice, of water rinsing and solution cleaning after removal of photoresist.

Method of processing substrates

A method for determining an endpoint of an in-situ cleaning process of a semiconductor processing chamber is provided. The method initiates with providing an optical emission spectrometer (OES) configured to monitor selected wavelength signals. Then, baseline OES threshold signal intensities are determined for each of the selected wavelength signals. Next, an endpoint time of each step of the in-situ cleaning process is determined. Determining an endpoint time includes executing a process recipe to process a semiconductor substrate within the processing chamber. Executing the in-situ cleaning process and recording the endpoint time for each step of the in-situ cleaning process are also included in determining the endpoint time. Then, nominal operating times are established for each step of the in-situ cleaning process. A plasma processing system for executing a two step in-situ cleaning process is also provided.

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Brett C Richardson