Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

David Palagashvili

Michael D Willwerth

Valentin Nikolov Todorow

Alexander Miller Paterson

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Dan Katz

Kartik Ramaswamy

Harald Herchen

Jingbao Liu

Michael G Chafin

Stephen Yuen

Michael S Barnes

James S Papanu

Hamid Noorbakhsh

Son Truong Nguyen

Sergio Fukuda Shoji

Chetan Mahadeswaraswamy

Valentin N Todorov

Gerhard M Schneider

Duy D Nguyen

Bryan Liao

Kenneth S Collins

Jennifer Y Sun

Andrew Nguyen

Wei Liu

John Patrick Holland

Hiroji Hanawa

Shahid Rauf

Douglas A Buchberger, Jr

Meihua Shen

Ajit Balakrishna

James P Cruse

Simon Yavelberg

Martin Jeffrey Salinas

Jon McChesney

Donald J Olgado

Imad Yousif

Mark Naoshi Kawaguchi

Anh Ngoc Nguyen

Edward P Hammond

Shashank C Deshmukh

Jeng H Hwang

Theodoros Panagopoulos

Alexander Tam

Tien Fak Tan

Norman Shendon

Sergey G Belostotskiy

Kirby Hane Floyd

Brian K Hatcher

Guangxiang Jin

Alex Schreiber

Shaofeng Chen

Rodolfo Belen

Yohei Kawase

Ying-Sheng Lin

Alex Erenstein

Eiichi Matsusue

Anh-Kiet Quang Phan

Jong I Shin

Barrett Finch

Haojiang Chen

A workpiece carrier is described for a plasma processing chamber that has isolated heater plate blocks. In one example, a plasma processing system has a plasma chamber, a plasma source electrically coupled with a showerhead included within the plasma chamber, a workpiece holder in a processing region of the plasma chamber having a puck to carry a workpiece, wherein the workpiece holder includes a heater plate having a plurality of thermally isolated blocks each thermally coupled to the puck, wherein each block includes a heater to heat a respective block of the heater plate, and wherein the workpiece holder includes a cooling plate fastened to and thermally coupled to the heater plate, the cooling plate defining a cooling channel configured to distribute a heat transfer fluid to transfer heat from the cooling plate, and a temperature controller to independently control each heater.

Plasma processing system workpiece carrier with thermally isolated heater plate blocks

Implementations of the disclosure generally provide an improved pedestal heater for a processing chamber. The pedestal heater includes a temperature-controlled plate having a first surface and a second surface opposing the first surface. The temperature-controlled plate includes an inner zone comprising a first set of heating elements, an outer zone comprising a second set of heating elements, the outer zone surrounding the inner zone, and a continuous thermal choke disposed between the inner zone and the outer zone, and a substrate receiving plate having a first surface and a second surface opposing the first surface, the second surface of the substrate receiving plate is coupled to the first surface of the temperature-controlled plate. The continuous thermal choke enables a very small temperature gradient to be created and manipulated between the inner zone and the outer zone, allowing center-fast or edge-fast etching profile to achieve on a surface of the substrate.

Chamber apparatus for chemical etching of dielectric materials

A shielded lid heater lid heater suitable for use with a plasma processing chamber, a plasma processing chamber having a shielded lid heater and a method for plasma processing are provided. The method and apparatus enhances positional control of plasma location within a plasma processing chamber, and may be utilized in etch, deposition, implant, and thermal processing systems, among other applications where the control of plasma location is desirable. In one embodiment, a process for tuning a plasma processing chamber is provided that include determining a position of a plasma within the processing chamber, selecting an inductance and/or position of an inductor coil coupled to a lid heater that shifts the plasma location from the determined position to a target position, and plasma processing a substrate with the inductor coil having the selected inductance and/or position.

Shielded lid heater assembly

Methods and systems for controlling temperatures in plasma processing chamber for a wide range of setpoint temperatures and reduced energy consumption. Temperature control is coordinated between a coolant liquid loop and a heat source by a control algorithm implemented by the plasma processing module controller. The control algorithm may completely stop the flow of coolant liquid to a temperature-controlled component in response to a feedback signal indicating an actual temperature is below the setpoint temperature. The control algorithm may further be based at least in part on a feedforward control signal derived from a plasma power or change in plasma power input into the processing chamber during process recipe execution.

Component temperature control by coolant flow control and heater duty cycle control

Apparatus for controlling the flow of a gas in a process chamber is provided herein. In some embodiments, an apparatus for controlling the flow of a gas in a process chamber having a processing volume within the process chamber disposed above a substrate support and a pumping volume within the process chamber disposed below the substrate support may include an annular plate surrounding the substrate support proximate a level of a substrate support surface of the substrate support, wherein the annular plate extends radially outward toward an inner peripheral surface of the process chamber to define a uniform gap between an outer edge of the annular plate and the inner peripheral surface, wherein the uniform gap provides a uniform flow path from the processing volume to the pumping volume.

Apparatus for controlling the flow of a gas in a process chamber

A shielded lid heater lid heater suitable for use with a plasma processing chamber, a plasma processing chamber having a shielded lid heater and a method for plasma processing are provided. The method and apparatus enhances positional control of plasma location within a plasma processing chamber, and may be utilized in etch, deposition, implant, and thermal processing systems, among other applications where the control of plasma location is desirable. In one embodiment, a shielded lid heater is provided that includes an aluminum base and RF shield sandwiching a heater element.

Undesirable heating of a semiconductor process ring is prevented by thermally isolating the process ring from the insulating puck of an electrostatic chuck, and providing a thermally conductive and electrically insulating thermal ring contacting both the semiconductor process ring and an underlying metal base having internal coolant flow passages.

Plasma reactor electrostatic chuck with cooled process ring and heated workpiece support surface

Embodiments of the present invention provide a recursive liner system that facilitates providing more uniform flow of gases proximate the surface of a substrate disposed within an apparatus for processing a substrate (e.g., a process chamber). In some embodiments, a recursive liner system may include an outer liner having an outer portion configured to line the walls of a process chamber, a bottom portion extending inward from the outer portion, and a lip extending up from the bottom portion to define a well; and an inner liner having a lower portion configured to be at least partially disposed in the well to define, together with the outer liner, a recursive flow path therebetween.

Chamber with uniform flow and plasma distribution

Apparatus for lifting substrates from substrate supports are provided herein. In some embodiments, a substrate lift may include: a substrate support having a plurality of lift pins movably disposed through the substrate support to selectively raise and lower a substrate; an actuator coupled to the plurality of lift pins to control the position of the plurality of lift pins, wherein the actuator has a first port for receiving air at a first pressure to cause the actuator to extend the plurality of lift pins and a second port for receiving air at a second pressure to cause the actuator to retract the plurality of lift pins; and a pressure regulator coupled to the actuator to reduce the first pressure to a magnitude that is less than that of the second pressure.

Low force substrate lift

Methods and systems for temperature enhanced chucking and dechucking of resistive substrates in a plasma processing apparatus are described herein. In certain embodiments, methods and systems incorporate modulating a glass carrier substrate temperature during a plasma etch process to chuck and dechuck the carrier at first temperatures elevated relative to second temperatures utilized during plasma etching. In embodiments, one or more of plasma heat, lamp heat, resistive heat, and fluid heat transfer are controlled to modulate the carrier substrate temperature between chucking temperatures and process temperatures with each run of the plasma etch process.

Temperature enhanced electrostatic chucking in plasma processing apparatus

Methods for etching high-k material at high temperatures are provided. In one embodiment, a method etching high-k material on a substrate may include providing a substrate having a high-k material layer disposed thereon into an etch chamber, forming a plasma from an etching gas mixture including at least a halogen containing gas into the etch chamber, maintaining a temperature of an interior surface of the etch chamber in excess of about 100 degree Celsius while etching the high-k material layer in the presence of the plasma, and maintaining a substrate temperature between about 100 degree Celsius and about 250 degrees Celsius while etching the high-k material layer in the presence of the plasma.

Methods for high temperature etching a high-K material gate structure

The disclosure concerns a method of processing a workpiece or in a plasma reactor chamber, using independent gas injection at the wafer edge.

Method of processing a workpiece in a plasma reactor with independent wafer edge process gas injection

Embodiments of electrostatic chucks are provided herein. In some embodiments, an electrostatic chuck may include a body having a notched upper peripheral edge, defined by a first surface perpendicular to a body sidewall and a stepped second surface disposed between the first surface and a body upper surface, and a plurality of holes disposed through the body along the first surface; a plurality of fasteners disposed through the plurality of holes to couple the body to a base disposed beneath the body; a dielectric member disposed above the body upper surface to electrostatically retain a substrate; an insulator ring disposed about the body within the notched upper peripheral edge and having a stepped inner sidewall that mates with the stepped second surface to define a non-linear interface therebetween; and an edge ring disposed over the insulator ring, the non-linear interface limiting arcing between the edge ring and the fastener.

Electrostatic chuck with reduced arcing

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

David Palagashvili