Applied Materials, Inc.

John M Yamartino

Peter K Loewenhardt

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Dimitris Lymberopoulos

Wade Zawalski

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Yan Ye

Alex Paterson

Gerald Z Yin

Saravjeet Singh

Chun Yan

Arthur H Sato

Hui W Chen

Michael N Grimbergen

Lei Lian

Matthew Fenton Davis

Chii Guang Lee

Kenlin Huang

Songlin Xu

Arthur Y Chen

Hong Ching Shan

Peter K Loewengardt

Xueyan Qian

Arnold Kolandenko

A method and apparatus for monitoring an etch process. The etch process may be monitored using measurement information (e.g., critical dimensions (CD), layer thickness, and the like) provided ex-situ with respect to the etch process in combination with in-situ monitoring (e.g., spectroscopy, interferometry, scatterometry, reflectometry, and the like) performed during the etch process. The ex-situ measurement information in combination with the in-situ monitoring may be used to monitor for example, an endpoint of an etch process, an etch depth profile of a feature formed on a substrate, fault detection of an integrated circuit manufacturing process, and the like.

Method and system for monitoring an etch process

In at least one embodiment, the present invention is a method for thin-film process chamber data analysis, which includes acquiring chamber data, defining an adjustment portion of the chamber data and a steady-state portion of the chamber data, and forming a chamber model having an adjustment portion and a steady-state portion. The method can further include comparing the chamber model with a subject chamber to provide a chamber data comparison and utilizing the chamber data comparison.

Split-phase chamber modeling for chamber matching and fault detection

A substrate etching chamber has a substrate support, a gas supply to introduce a process gas into the chamber; an inductor antenna to sustain a plasma of the process gas in a process zone of the chamber, and an exhaust to exhaust the process gas. A magnetic field generator disposed about the chamber has first and second solenoids. A controller is adapted to control a power supply to provide a first current to the first solenoid and a second current to the second solenoid, thereby generating a magnetic field in the process zone of the chamber to controllably shape the plasma in the process zone to reduce etch rate variations across the substrate.

Shaping a plasma with a magnetic field to control etch rate uniformity

A method of eliminating charging resulting from plasma processing a semiconductor wafer comprising the steps of plasma processing the semiconductor wafer in a manner that may result in topographically dependent charging and exposing, during at least a portion of a time in which the semiconductor wafer is being plasma processed, the semiconductor wafer to particles that remove charge from the semiconductor wafer and reduce topographically dependent charging.

Method for reducing topography dependent charging effects in a plasma enhanced semiconductor wafer processing system

A method of improving plasma processing of a semiconductor wafer by exposing the wafer or the plasma to photons while the wafer is being processed. One embodiment of the method comprises the steps of etching an aluminum layer and, during the etching, exposing the semiconductor wafer containing the aluminum layer to photons that photodesorb copper chloride from the surface of the layer thus improving the etch process performance.

Method for enhancing plasma processing performance

A method for processing a semiconductor wafer with a plasma using continuous RF power for a first phase of wafer processing and with pulsed RF power for a second phase of wafer processing.

Method for providing pulsed plasma during a portion of a semiconductor wafer process

The present invention provides an apparatus and method, for plasma assisted processing of a workpiece, which provides for separate control of species density within a processing plasma. The present invention has a processing chamber and at least one collateral chamber. The collateral chamber is capable of generating a collateral plasma and delivering it to the processing chamber. To control the densities of the particle species within the processing chamber the present invention may have: a filter interposed between the collateral chamber and the processing chamber, primary chamber source power, several collateral chambers providing separate inputs to the processing chamber, or combinations thereof. Collateral plasma may be: filtered, combined with primary chamber generated plasma, combined with another collateral plasma, or combinations thereof to separately control the densities of the species comprising the processing plasma.

Plasma assisted processing chamber with separate control of species density

Method and apparatus for improving processing and reducing charge damage in an inductively coupled plasma reactor

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for processing a workpiece in an inductively coupled plasma reactor. Inductive power is applied to the reactor to generate a plasma. A magnetic field is generated within the plasma reactor having lines of force oriented perpendicular to the workpiece surface. It is a feature of the invention to control the electron temperature near the surface of the workpiece by controlling the applied magnetic field. It is a further feature to increase average ion density near the workpiece without otherwise causing damage to the workpiece due to uneven charge build-up. The applied magnetic field can be time invariant or time variant. In both cases, processing can be optimized by adjusting the magnitude of the magnetic field to a level just below where damage due to uneven charge build-up occurs. With the time variant field, the average ion density can be adjusted with respect to average electron temperature. As such, average ion density near the workpiece can by increased without otherwise causing damage to the workpiece. It is a further feature of the present invention to provide independently controllable conductors for generating the magnetic field and to provide an adjustable non-uniformly distributed magnetic field within the chamber. This can be used to selectively control plasma density or to selectively confine process gas species.

Method and apparatus for improving processing and reducing charge damage

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

John M Yamartino