Applied Materials, Inc.

Applied Materiels, Inc.

Gerhard M Schneider

Kenneth S Collins

Andrew Nguyen

Michael Robert Rice

Ananda H Kumar

Gerald Z Yin

Dennis Stanley Grimard

Robert W Wu

David Palagashvili

Valentin N Todorov

Edwin Charles Weldon

Eric Askarinam

Kartik Ramaswamy

Jennifer Y Sun

Michael S Barnes

John Patrick Holland

Hiroji Hanawa

Shahid Rauf

Shamouil Shamouilian

Arnold Kholodenko

Alexander Miller Paterson

Hamid Noorbakhsh

Kadthala Ramaya Narendrnath

Bryan Y Pu

Ajit Balakrishna

James P Cruse

Craig A Roderick

Martin Jeffrey Salinas

Senh Thach

Douglas Buchberger

Jon McChesney

Alexander M Veytser

Imad Yousif

John R Trow

Evans Yip Lee

Brad L Mays

Semyon L Kats

Michael G Chafin

Joshua Chiu-Wing Tsui

Viktor Shel

Kaushik Vaidya

Hung Dao

Hongging Shan

Liang Guo Wang

A process is provided for removing polymer from a backside of a workpiece. The process includes supporting the workpiece on the backside in a vacuum chamber while leaving at least a peripheral annular portion of the backside exposed. The process further includes confining gas flow at the edge of the workpiece within a gap at the edge of the workpiece on the order of about 1% of the diameter of the chamber, the gap defining a boundary between an upper process zone containing the wafer front side and a lower process zone containing the wafer backside. The process also includes providing a polymer etch precursor gas underneath the backside edge of the workpiece and applying RF power to a region underlying the backside edge of the workpiece to generate a first plasma of polymer etch species concentrated in an annular ring concentric with and underneath the backside edge of the workpiece.

Process for wafer backside polymer removal with a ring of plasma under the wafer

A method and apparatus for processing wafers including a chamber defining a plurality of isolated processing regions. The isolated processing regions have an upper end and a lower end. The chamber further includes a plurality of plasma generation devices each disposed adjacent the upper end of each isolated processing region, and one of a plurality of power supplies connected to each plasma generation device. The output frequency of the plurality of power supplies are phase and/or frequency locked together. Additionally, the chamber includes a plurality of gas distribution assemblies. Each gas distribution assembly is disposed within each isolated processing region. A movable wafer support is disposed within each isolated processing region to support a wafer for plasma processing thereon. The movable wafer support includes a bias electrode coupled to a bias power supply configured to control the bombardment of plasma ions toward the movable wafer support.

Tandem etch chamber plasma processing system

A substrate support assembly comprises a substrate support and a collar which may comprise at least one slit . The slit allows for thermal expansion compensation in the support assembly . The collar may, for example, protect the dielectric from erosion in a process chamber . In one version, the collar comprises a clamping ring on the dielectric

Support assembly with thermal expansion compensation

A plasma reactor appropriate for fabrication, especially etching, of semiconductor integrated circuits and similar processes in which the chamber has a top comprising a truncated conical dome and, preferably, a counter electrode disposed at the top of the conical dome. An RF coil is wrapped around the conical dome to inductively couple RF energy into a plasma within the chamber dome. The dome temperature can be controlled in a number of ways. A heat sink can be attached to the outside rim of the dome. A rigid conical thermal control sheath can be fit to the outside of the dome, and any differential thermal expansion between the two is accommodated by the conical geometry, thus assuring good thermal contact. The rigid thermal control sheath can include resistive heating, fluid cooling, or both. Alternatively, a flexible resistive heater can be wrapped around the dome inside the RF coil. The resistive heater includes a heater wire wound in a serpentine path that has straight portions overlying and perpendicular to the RF coil but has bends located away from the RF coil. The path prevents the heater wire from shorting the azimuthal electric field induced by the RF coil and also acts as a Faraday shield preventing capacitive coupling from the coil into the chamber plasma.

Inductively coupled parallel-plate plasma reactor with a conical dome

A process chamber,for processing a substrate,, such as a semiconductor wafer, comprises a support,having a surface,for supporting the substrate,. A gas distributor,in the chamber comprises a gas manifold,comprising at least one insert,having an orifice,for passing gas from the gas manifold,into the process chamber,. Preferably, the gas manifold,extends about a perimeter,of the substrate,and comprises a plurality of inserts,made from dielectric material.

Process chamber having improved gas distributor and method of manufacture

A pressure controlled substrate processing chamber comprising a pressure control ring and a throttling ridge. The pressure control ring is movably disposed proximate the throttling ridge to define a variable flow orifice. The pressure control ring is translated by a ring actuator in response to pressure information retrieved from the processing chamber. The translation of the pressure control ring causes the size of the orifice to change, thus inducing a pressure change within the chamber.

Method and apparatus for semiconductor processing chamber pressure control

A thermally conductive medium includes a body with a first melting point and phase-changing material encapsulating a portion of the body, with the phase-changing material having a second melting point. The first melting point is greater than the second melting point, and the phase-changing material is configured to be in a liquid phase at temperatures above the second melting point and a solid phase at temperatures below the same. In the liquid phase, an adhesive force is present between the body and the phase-changing material due to capillary attraction, and the phase-changing material may be wettable to one of the two surfaces.

Thermally conductive conformal media

A semiconductor wafer chuck for retaining a semiconductor wafer during semiconductor wafer processing in a semiconductor wafer processing system including a connector connecting DC chucking voltage and RF biasing power to an electrode embedded in the body of the chuck. The connector for the chuck includes two or more members joined by resilient banana connections. The connector may be adapted for use as a high temperature connector for an electrostatic chuck operated at an elevated temperature and such connector includes a thermal impedance for reducing the heat transferred from the chuck to the bottom of the connector.

Connectors for an electrostatic chuck and combination thereof

The case of maintainability and component replacement for a vacuum processing chamber is enhanced by providing a vacuum chamber roof assembly whose connection to the vacuum chamber body is through a clamped connection. Accessories needed for the roof assembly, e.g. cooling, heating, RF power, are separately supported and terminated to an accessories supporting cold plate, which is separately mounted such it is easily movable, for example by hinging from the chamber body. The roof of the chamber can then easily be separated from the chamber body and replaced. In an further mode the chamber roof can be easily raised to provide easy access to modular components inside the processing chamber. All components exposed to the plasma in the chamber can be easily accessed and replaced. Moreover, such access is provided without the need to disconnect utilities or instrumentation, since the release of a latch and pivoting the cold plate assembly away from the chamber body upwards is all that is needed to gain access to either the top of the roof of the processing chamber or the inside of the chamber. Chamber roof cooling is provided through a separable connection which is spring clamped to provide a high confidence that uniform thermal conductivity across a clamped joint is maintained.

Vacuum processing chamber having multi-mode access

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a plasma reactor having a chamber for containing a plasma and a passageway communicating with the chamber is enhanced with a first removable plasma confinement magnet module placed adjacent the passageway including a first module housing and a first plasma confinement magnet inside the housing. It may further include a second removable plasma confinement magnet module placed adjacent the passageway including a second module housing, and a second plasma confinement magnet. Preferably, the first and second modules are located on opposite sides of the passageway. Moreover, the first and second plasma confinement magnets have magnetic orientations which tend to oppose plasma transport or leakage through the passageway. Preferably, the module housing includes a relatively non-magnetic thermal conductor such as aluminum and is in thermal contact with said chamber body. Cooling apparatus can be thermally coupled to the chamber body, whereby to maintain the first plasma confinement magnet below its Curie temperature. If the reactor includes a pumping annulus adjacent of a periphery of the chamber, then the passageway can be one which communicates between the chamber and the pumping annulus. Also, the passageway can be a wafer slit valve or a gas feed inlet. Such a gas feed inlet can be a center gas feed through a ceiling of the chamber. The module housing can rest upon the chamber side wall and the chamber ceiling can rest upon the module housing.

Inductively coupled RF plasma reactor having an overhead solenoidal

A gate valve assembly having a primary and secondary seating surface for preventing process fluids from contacting the seals of the valve is provided. Additionally, a purge gas inlet can be disposed in the valve body to prevent process gases from contacting the seals during operation. Still further, a primary and secondary barrier seal may be provided to prevent process gases from contacting the primary seal. Additionally, a purge gas inlet can be disposed between the primary and secondary seals to further prevent process gases from contacting the primary seal.

Isolation valve with extended seal life

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Gerhard M Schneider