Applied Materials, Inc.

Edward P Hammond

Alexander Miller Paterson

Dan Katz

Brian K Hatcher

Valentin Nikolov Todorow

Theodoros Panagopoulos

John Patrick Holland

Dmitry A Dzilno

Alexander Matyushkin

Viren Kalsekar

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Tza-Jing Gung

Abdul Aziz Khaja

Zheng John Ye

Vinay K Prabhakar

Jonghoon Baek

Rodolfo Belen

Jun Ma

John C Forster

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Jian Li

Amit Kumar Bansal

Praburam Gopalraja

Arvind Sundarrajan

Kwangduk Douglas Lee

Tsutomu Tanaka

Xinyu Fu

Prashant Kumar Kulshreshtha

Bhaskar Kumar

Sidharth Bhatia

Vivek Bharat Shah

Anup Kumar Singh

Mark A Perrin

Andrew S Gillard

Satya Thokachichu

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Sanjeev Baluja

Deenesh Padhi

Jeonghoon Oh

Anantha K Subramani

Kallol Bera

Jason M Schaller

Xinhai Han

David T Blahnik

Satoru Kobayashi

David Palagashvili

Tejas Ulavi

Sarah Michelle Bobek

Venkata Sharat Chandra Parimi

Edwin C Suarez

Sanjay G Kamath

Juan Carlos Rocha

Daemian Raj Benjamin Raj

Shailendra Srivastava

Valentin N Todorov

Sungwon Ha

Alexander Viktorovich Garachtchenko

Xiaopu Li

Kristopher R Enslow

Byung Seok Kwon

Abhigyan Keshri

Bushra Afzal

Rana Howlader

Satya Teja Babu Thokachichu

Vidyadharan Srinivasa Murthy Bangalore

Yury Trachuk

Wenhao Zhang

The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for controlling a plasma sheath near a substrate edge. Changing the voltage/current distribution across the inner electrode and the outer electrode with in the substrate assembly facilitates the spatial distribution of the plasma across the substrate. The method includes providing a first radio frequency power to a central electrode embedded in a substrate support assembly, providing a second radio frequency power to an annular electrode embedded in the substrate support assembly at a location different than the central electrode, wherein the annular electrode circumferentially surrounds the central electrode, monitoring parameters of the first and second radio frequency power, and adjusting one or both of the first and second radio frequency power based on the monitored parameters.

Electrostatic chuck with multiple radio frequency meshes to control plasma uniformity

A semiconductor processing chamber for processing semiconductor substrates may include a pedestal to support a substrate with a heater zones and a wire mesh configured to deliver a Radio Frequency (RF) signal to a plasma. The chamber may also include heater zone controls that deliver current to the heater zones and a filter circuit between the heater zone controls and the heater zones. The filter circuit may include inductors on leads from the heater zones and a resonant circuit with a resonant inductor that is magnetically coupled to the lead inductors. The resonant circuit may produce a resonant peak that filters the RF signal delivered to the wire mesh from the leads from the heater zones to prevent the RF signal from reaching the heater zone controls.

Magnetically coupled RF filter for substrate processing chambers

In one or more embodiments, a method for depositing a carbon hard-mask material by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) includes heating a substrate contained within a process chamber to a temperature in a range from about 100 C to about 700 C and producing a plasma with a power generator emitting an RF power of greater than 3 kW. In some examples, the temperature is in a range from about 300 C to about 700 C and the RF power is greater than 3 kW to about 7 kW. The method also includes flowing a hydrocarbon precursor into the plasma within the process chamber and forming a carbon hard-mask layer on the substrate at a rate of greater than 5,000/min, such as up to about 10,000/min or faster.

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of carbon hard-mask

Exemplary substrate processing systems may include a chamber body defining a transfer region. The systems may include a lid plate seated on the chamber body. The lid plate may define a plurality of apertures. The systems may include a plurality of lid stacks equal to a number of the plurality of apertures. The systems may include a plurality of substrate support assemblies equal to the number of apertures defined through the lid plate. Each assembly may be disposed in one of the processing regions and may include an electrostatic chuck body defining a substrate support surface that defines a substrate seat. Each assembly may include a heater embedded within the chuck body. Each assembly may include bipolar electrodes between the heater and the substrate support surface. Each assembly may include a conductive mesh embedded within the body between the heater and bipolar electrodes.

Bipolar esc with balanced RF impedance

Embodiments described herein relate to apparatus and techniques for radio frequency (RF) phase control in a process chamber. A process volume is defined in the process chamber by a faceplate electrode and a support pedestal. A grounding bowl is disposed within the process chamber about the support pedestal opposite the process volume. The grounding bowl substantially fills a volume other than the process volume below the support pedestal. A phase tuner circuit is coupled to an RF mesh disposed in the support pedestal and the faceplate electrode. The tuner circuit adjusts a phase difference between a phase of the faceplate electrode and a phase of the RF mesh.

Device and method for tuning plasma distribution using phase control

Exemplary semiconductor processing systems may include a processing chamber and an electrostatic chuck disposed at least partially within the processing chamber. The electrostatic chuck may include at least one electrode and a heater. A semiconductor processing system may include a power supply to provide a signal to the electrode to provide electrostatic force to secure a substrate to the electrostatic chuck. The system may also include a filter communicatively coupled between the power supply and the electrode. The filter is configured to remove or reduce noise introduced into the chucking signal by operating the heater while the electrostatic force on the substrate is maintained. The filter may include active circuitry, passive circuitry, or both, and may include an adjustment circuit to set the gain of the filter so that an output signal level from the filter corresponds to an input signal level for the filter.

Power supply signal conditioning for an electrostatic chuck

Exemplary substrate support assemblies may include a platen characterized by a first surface configured to support a semiconductor substrate. The assemblies may include a first stem section coupled with a second surface of the platen opposite the first surface of the platen. The assemblies may include a second stem section coupled with the first stem section. The second stem section may include a housing and a rod holder disposed within the housing. The second stem section may include a connector seated within the rod holder at a first end of the connector. The second stem section may include a heater rod disposed within the first end of the connector and a heater extension rod coupled with the connector at a second end of the connector. The second stem section may include an RF rod and an RF strap coupling the RF rod with an RF extension rod.

Substrate support assemblies and components

A power supply circuit includes a switchable match, including a high voltage bus connectable to a load, a low voltage bus connectable to the load such that the load is in series between the high voltage bus and the low voltage bus, at least two capacitors having a fixed value of capacitance selectively connectable between the high voltage bus and the low voltage bus and a plurality of solid state switches equal in number to the number of capacitors having a fixed value of capacitance connectable between the high voltage bus and the low voltage bus, each switch configured and arranged to selectively connect or disconnect one of the capacitors having a fixed value of capacitance selectively connectable between the high voltage bus and the low voltage bus into electrical communication between the high voltage bus and the low voltage bus, and a variable frequency power supply including a high voltage output connection, the high voltage connection connected to the high voltage bus.

RF power delivery architecture with switchable match and frequency tuning

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to substrate supports for process chambers and RF grounding configurations for use therewith. Methods of grounding RF current are also described. A chamber body at least partially defines a process volume therein. A first electrode is disposed in the process volume. A pedestal is disposed opposite the first electrode. A second electrode is disposed in the pedestal. An RF filter is coupled to the second electrode through a conductive rod. The RF filter includes a first capacitor coupled to the conductive rod and to ground. The RF filter also includes a first inductor coupled to a feedthrough box. The feedthrough box includes a second capacitor and a second inductor coupled in series. A direct current (DC) power supply for the second electrode is coupled between the second capacitor and the second inductor.

RF grounding configuration for pedestals

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and an apparatus for monitoring plasma behavior inside a plasma processing chamber. In one example, a method for monitoring plasma behavior includes acquiring at least one image of a plasma, and determining a plasma parameter based on the at least one image.

Plasma parameters and skew characterization by high speed imaging

Embodiments described herein relate to ground path systems providing a shorter and symmetrical path for radio frequency (RF) energy to propagate to a ground to reduce generation of the parasitic plasma. The ground path system bifurcates the processing volume of the chamber to form an inner volume that isolates an outer volume of the processing volume.

Ground path systems for providing a shorter and symmetrical ground path

A radio-frequency (RF) power circuit for a multi-electrode cathode in a processing chamber may include an RF source and inductive element(s) that are conductively coupled to the RF source. A first inductive element may be inductively coupled to the inductive element(s), and the first inductive element may be configured to receive a first portion of RF power originating from the RF source and provide the first portion of the RF power for a first pedestal electrode. A second inductive element may also be inductively coupled to the inductive element(s), and the second inductive element may be configured to receive a second portion of RF power originating from the RF source through the inductive element(s) and provide the second portion of the RF power for a second pedestal electrode.

Push-pull power supply for multi-mesh processing chambers

One or more embodiments described herein generally relate to selective deposition of substrates in semiconductor processes. In these embodiments, a precursor is delivered to a process region of a process chamber. A plasma is generated by delivering RF power to an electrode within a substrate support surface of a substrate support disposed in the process region of the process chamber. In embodiments described herein, delivering the RF power at a high power range, such as greater than 4.5 kW, advantageously leads to greater plasma coupling to the electrode, resulting in selective deposition to the substrate, eliminating deposition on other process chamber areas such as the process chamber side walls. As such, less process chamber cleans are necessary, leading to less time between depositions, increasing throughput and making the process more cost-effective.

Selective deposition of hardmask

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Hillsborough, CA, United States of America

Edward P Hammond