Applied Materials, Inc.

Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.

B/e Aerospace, Inc.

Advanced Thermal Sciences Corporation

Aes Global Holdings Pte Ltd.

Other

Daniel John Hoffman

Douglas A Buchberger, Jr

Kallol Bera

Steven C Shannon

Victor Brouk

Paul Brillhart

Daniel Carter

Matthew L Miller

Douglas H Burns

Yan Ye

Richard Charles Fovell

Kartik Ramaswamy

Hamid Tavassoli

Ezra Robert Gold

Kenneth Wesley Cowans

John Pipitone

Glenn Zubillaga

Xiaoye Zhao

Kenneth S Collins

William W Cowans

Isaac Millan

Jang Gyoo Yang

James D Carducci

Karl M Brown

Ying Rui

Karen Peterson

Andrew Nguyen

Tetsuya Ishikawa

Bryan Y Pu

Michael C Kutney

Dan Katz

Kang-Lie Chiang

Robert B Hagen

Randy Grilley

Gerardo Delgadino

Kenny Linh Doan

Semyon L Kats

Bruno Geoffrion

Jeremiah T P Pender

Tarreg Mawari

Michael S Barnes

Hiroji Hanawa

Brian C Lue

Gerald Zheyao Yin

Roger Alan Lindley

Wing Lau Cheng

Kwok Manus Wong

Randy L Heckman

Dmitry Lubomirsky

John C Forster

Shiang-Bau Wang

Rongjun Wang

Qiwei Liang

Alexander Miller Paterson

Keiji Horioka

Dennis Stanley Grimard

Douglas Buchberger

Theodoros Panagopoulos

Wonseok Lee

Olga Regelman

Kwang-Soo Kim

Chunshi Cui

Heeyeop Chae

Scott A Hogenson

Victor H Fuentes

Anchuan Wang

Vijay D Parkhe

Steven Verhaverbeke

John Patrick Holland

Xianmin Tang

Stephen Moffatt

Keith A Miller

Majeed Foad

Ashok K Sinha

Lara Hawrylchak

Peter K Loewenhardt

Vineet Haresh Mehta

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Young Seen Lee

Shawming Ma

Alan A Ritchie

Simon Yavelberg

Martin Jeffrey Salinas

Steven Lane

Walter R Merry

Jacob Newman

Xiaoping Zhou

Jingbao Liu

Michael G Chafin

Jose Antonio Marin

Troy S Detrick

Taeho Shin

Jivko Dinev

Lee LaBlanc

Dmitri Kovalevskii

Jerry C Chen

Edward L Floyd

Scott Polak

William J Hattel

Xianming Tang

Systems and methods for plasma processing are disclosed. An exemplary system may include a plasma processing chamber including a source to produce a plasma in the processing chamber and at least two bias electrodes arranged within the plasma processing chamber to control plasma sheaths proximate to the bias electrodes. A chuck is disposed to support a substrate, and a source generator is coupled to the plasma electrode. At least one bias supply is coupled to the at least two bias electrodes, and a controller is included to control the at least one bias supply to control the plasma sheath(s) proximate to the bias electrodes.

System, method, and apparatus for controlling ion energy distribution in plasma processing systems

An apparatus and method to produce a waveform. The apparatus includes a first node, at least one switch that couples a second node to the first node, and responsive to the at least one switch being closed, a peak voltage is produced at the first node before a voltage at the first node drops by a voltage step. A power supply is coupled to the first node to produce, after the voltage step, a ramped voltage at the first node.

Apparatus to control a waveform

Systems, methods and apparatus for applying a periodic voltage function are disclosed. An exemplary method comprises applying a modified periodic voltage function to an electrical node and monitoring the modified periodic voltage function over multiple cycles to monitor a relationship to represent a status of a plasma process or the plasma processing chamber, where Irepresents a controllable ion compensation current, D is a unitless value, represents a portion of the modified periodic voltage function that includes a negative voltage ramp, and Cis an effective capacitance including a capacitance of a substrate support.

Systems and methods for monitoring faults, anomalies, and other characteristics of a switched mode ion energy distribution system

An apparatus and method to produce a waveform. The apparatus includes a first node, a first power supply coupled to a second node, a first switch that couples the second node to the first node, and responsive to the first switch being closed, a peak voltage is applied at the first node. The apparatus also includes a second switch that couples a third node to the first node, and responsive to the second switch being closed, a voltage step is applied at the first node. In addition, a second power supply is coupled to the first node to produce a ramped voltage at the first node.

Apparatus with switches to produce a waveform

Systems, methods and apparatus for regulating ion energies in a plasma chamber and chucking a substrate to a substrate support are disclosed. An exemplary method includes placing a substrate in a plasma chamber, forming a plasma in the plasma chamber, controllably switching power to the substrate so as to apply a periodic voltage function (or a modified periodic voltage function) to the substrate, and modulating, over multiple cycles of the periodic voltage function, the periodic voltage function responsive to a defined distribution of energies of ions at the surface of the substrate so as to effectuate the defined distribution of ion energies on a time-averaged basis.

In a plasma enhanced physical vapor deposition of a material onto workpiece, a metal target faces the workpiece across a target-to-workpiece gap less than a diameter of the workpiece. A carrier gas is introduced into the chamber and gas pressure in the chamber is maintained above a threshold pressure at which mean free path is less than 5% of the gap. RF plasma source power from a VHF generator is applied to the target to generate a capacitively coupled plasma at the target, the VHF generator having a frequency exceeding 30 MHz. The plasma is extended across the gap to the workpiece by providing through the workpiece a first VHF ground return path at the frequency of the VHF generator.

Physical vapor deposition with isotropic neutral and non-isotropic ion velocity distribution at the wafer surface

Physical vapor deposition system with a source of isotropic ion velocity distribution at the wafer surface

This disclosure describes a remote plasma source, a gas input manifold, and related methods of making and using. In some examples, a remote plasma source is provided with a plasma chamber, a gas input manifold, and an output region. The remote plasma source also has means for introducing a gas into the plasma chamber, the means for introducing configured to impart a radial velocity and a longitudinal velocity on the gas, relative to a longitudinal axis through the remote plasma source.

Plasma source device and methods

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatuses for generating an ionizing electromagnetic field via a remote plasma source such that the field controllably extends through a field projection portion where the field attenuates, to a plasma processing portion where the field is attenuated but still strong enough to sustain a plasma. The plasma has a low voltage and RF energy and can be used for a variety of semiconductor and thin film processing operations including chamber cleaning via radical generation, etching, and deposition.

Projected plasma source

A baffle assembly for an etching apparatus is disclosed. The baffle assembly comprises a ring and a lower baffle portion having a curved wall extending between a flange portion and a lower frame portion. A heating assembly may be present within the lower frame portion to control the temperature of the baffle. The baffle assembly may help confine the plasma within the processing space in the chamber. The ring may comprise silicon carbide and the lower baffle portion may comprise aluminum.

Annular baffle

Physical vapor deposition method with a source of isotropic ion velocity distribution at the wafer surface

Method of controlling the switched mode ion energy distribution system

Methods and apparatus for forming substrates having magnetically patterned surfaces is provided. A magnetic layer comprising one or more materials having magnetic properties is formed on a substrate. The magnetic layer is subjected to a patterning process in which selected portions of the surface of the magnetic layer are altered such that the altered portions have different magnetic properties from the non-altered portions without changing the topography of the substrate. A protective layer and a lubricant layer are deposited over the patterned magnetic layer. The patterning is accomplished through a number of processes that expose substrates to energy of varying forms. Apparatus and methods disclosed herein enable processing of two major surfaces of a substrate simultaneously, or sequentially by flipping. In some embodiments, magnetic properties of the substrate surface may be uniformly altered by plasma exposure and then selectively restored by exposure to patterned energy.

HDD pattern implant system

Growing community of inventors

Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Daniel John Hoffman