Tokyo Electron Limited

Eiki Kamata

Taro Ikeda

Mikio Sato

Nobuhiko Yamamoto

Mitsutoshi Ashida

Satoru Kawakami

Susumu Saito

Kazushi Kaneko

Shigenori Ozaki

Yuki Osada

Hirokazu Ueda

Tomohito Komatsu

Hiroyuki Miyashita

Atsushi Kubo

Haruhiko Furuya

Isao Gunji

Masashi Imanaka

Satoshi Itoh

Yoshiyuki Kondo

Takumi Kabe

Soudai Emori

Kazuhiro Furuki

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus comprising: a processing container configured such that a substrate is subjected to plasma processing; a dielectric top plate which is quadrangular and which is provided to close an upper opening of the processing container; and a conductor plate supporting the dielectric top plate and having four electromagnetic wave emitting ports for emitting electromagnetic waves to the dielectric top plate. Each of the four electromagnetic wave emitting ports has a rectangular shape having long side and short side, the electromagnetic wave emitting ports are arranged such that the long side of each of the four electromagnetic wave emitting ports are parallel to the closest side among four sides of the dielectric top plate forming the quadrangular shape, and the long sides of the two electromagnetic wave emitting ports oriented in a same direction do not overlap each other in the same direction.

Plasma processing apparatus, and plasma processing method

A plasma processing apparatus comprises a processing chamber accommodating a substrate, and defining a processing space by an upper wall, a side wall, and a lower wall, a microwave generator configured to generate a microwave for generating plasma, a plurality of microwave radiators provided above the upper wall, and configured to radiate the microwave toward the processing chamber, a plurality of microwave transmission windows provided at positions corresponding to the plurality of microwave radiators in the upper wall, and formed of a dielectric, and a plurality of resonator array structures disposed on lower surfaces of the plurality of microwave transmission windows, respectively. The resonator array structures are formed by arranging a plurality of resonators that are capable of resonance with a magnetic field component of the microwave and are smaller in size than a wavelength of the microwave.

Plasma processing apparatus

There is provided a tuner that forms a part of an electromagnetic wave transmission path for supplying electromagnetic waves from a power supply to a load, and that matches an impedance on a power supply side and an impedance on a load side, comprising: a coaxial line including a cylindrical inner conductor and a cylindrical outer conductor disposed coaxially outside the inner conductor; an annular first dielectric constant changing material disposed in a space between the inner conductor and the outer conductor of the coaxial line, and having a variable dielectric constant; an annular second dielectric constant changing material spaced apart from the first dielectric constant changing material in a line length direction of the coaxial line, disposed in the space between the inner conductor and the outer conductor of the coaxial line, and having a variable dielectric constant; a first power supply portion configured to supply power to the first dielectric constant changing material; and a second power supply portion configured to supply power to the second dielectric constant changing material.

Tuner, and impedance matching method

Embodiments of this application discloses a plasma processing method performed in a plasma processing apparatus having a plurality of plasma sources, the plasma processing method comprising: controlling each of the plasma sources so that at least one plasma source of the plurality of plasma sources is in a first state referring an OFF-state or a power state of a first level and the remaining plasma sources are in a second state referring an ON-state or a power state of a second level higher than the power state of the first level; and generating plasma from a processing gas with power output from the plurality of plasma sources, and processing a substrate, wherein said controlling of each of the plasma sources includes repeatedly controlling so that the plasma source of the first state among the plurality of plasma sources is sequentially transitioned.

Plasma processing method and plasma processing apparatus

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus that converts a gas supplied into a processing container into a plasma to process a substrate, the plasma processing apparatus including: a microwave introduction window disposed in each of a plurality of openings formed in a ceiling wall of the processing container, the microwave introduction window being configured to supply power of microwaves into the processing container; and a plurality of grooves formed on the ceiling wall to surround the openings respectively, wherein widths between the grooves and the openings are not uniform with respect to circumferential directions of the openings.

Plasma processing apparatus and ceiling wall

This plasma processing apparatus for performing plasma processing on an end part of a substrate includes a processing container, a substrate supporting member configured to support a portion of the substrate and to which a high frequency power is applied, at least a side of the substrate supporting member being composed of a dielectric, an opposing dielectric member composed of a dielectric and disposed to oppose the substrate supporting member, and a gas supply configured to supply a processing gas for generating plasma on at least the end part of the substrate. The plasma processing apparatus further includes a side ground electrode provided at a side of the substrate so as to be close to the substrate to such an extent that an electrical coupling is formed between an end surface of the substrate and the side ground electrode, the side ground electrode having a ground potential.

Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

There is provided a plasma processing method in a plasma processing apparatus including a chamber, a stage on which a substrate is placed in the chamber, a plurality of radiating devices configured to radiate a plurality of electromagnetic waves, and a dielectric window disposed between the plurality of radiating devices and the stage. The method comprises: preparing the substrate on the stage; controlling a phase of at least one of the plurality of electromagnetic waves radiated from the plurality of radiating devices; radiating the plurality of electromagnetic waves into the chamber from the plurality of radiating devices; and processing the substrate using localized plasma generated from a gas supplied between the dielectric window and the stage.

Measuring a plasma state using a probe device in the case of performing plasma processing on a substrate by introducing process gas into a processing container accommodating the substrate and by producing pulsed plasma using an electromagnetic wave pulse obtained by processing an electromagnetic wave generated from an electromagnetic wave oscillator using a pulsing device. An AC voltage to the pulsed plasma is applied via the probe device; transmitting a signal from the pulsed plasma based on the AC voltage via the probe device and measuring data including a current value; and obtaining a state of the pulsed plasma by analyzing the measured data. The frequency of the AC voltage deviates from a frequency of the electromagnetic wave pulse so that the number of data required for the measurement of the pulsed plasma within one cycle of the electromagnetic wave pulse is obtained within allowable time.

Plasma measurement method

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus. The apparatus comprises a chamber having a processing space for performing plasma processing on a substrate and a combining space for combining electromagnetic waves, a dielectric window separating the processing space from the combining space, an antenna unit having a plurality of antennas radiating the electromagnetic waves to the combining space and functioning as a phased array antenna, an electromagnetic wave output unit that outputs the electromagnetic waves to the antenna unit, a stage on which the substrate is placed, a gas supply unit that supplies a gas for ALD film formation to the processing space, and a controller that controls the gas supply unit to supply the gas to perform the ALD film formation and control localized plasma to move at a high speed in the processing space by causing the antenna unit to function as the phased array antenna.

A plasma processing apparatus includes: a processing container; a substrate holder disposed within the processing container and configured to hold a substrate thereon; a dielectric window disposed below the substrate holder; and a plurality of phased array antennas disposed below the dielectric window and configured to irradiate a plurality of electromagnetic waves.

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus including: a chamber having a processing space in which a plasma processing is performed on a substrate and a synthetic space in which electromagnetic waves are synthesized; a dielectric window configured to partition the processing space and the synthetic space; an antenna unit including a plurality of antennas configured to radiate the electromagnetic waves to the synthetic space; an electromagnetic wave output part configured to output the electromagnetic waves to the antenna unit; and a controller configured to control the antenna unit to function as the phased array antenna, wherein the plurality of antennas are helical antennas.

A method of controlling a scanning-type plasma processing apparatus using a phased array antenna, includes observing light emission of plasma generated inside a processing container through observation windows provided at multiple positions in the processing container, calculating an in-plane distribution of values representing characteristics of the plasma on a substrate, based on data on the observed light emission of the plasma, and correcting a scanning pattern and/or a plasma density distribution of the plasma based on the calculated in-plane distribution of the values representing the characteristics of the plasma on the substrate.

Control method and plasma processing apparatus

A plasma processing method includes: supplying a gas into a processing container; and intermittently supplying microwave powers output from a plurality of microwave introducing modules into the processing container. In the intermittently supplying the microwave powers, the supply of all the microwave powers from the plurality of microwave introducing modules is periodically in an OFF state for a given time.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a stage provided in a chamber and having a heater therein, the stage being configured to place a substrate thereon, and an annular member provided around the stage to be spaced apart therefrom and formed of a dielectric material. At least one annular groove is formed in a lower surface of the annular member in a radial direction.

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus including: a processing container; a first electrode provided inside the processing container and connected to a high-frequency power supply; a second electrode provided inside the processing container to face the first electrode, the second electrode being grounded; and a film thickness calculator connected to at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode and configured to calculate a thickness of a film deposited on the at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode.

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Eiki Kamata