Applied Materials, Inc.

Jr-Jyan Chen

Bradley Owen Stimson

Kenny King-tai Ngan

Kenny King-Tai Ngan

Barney M Cohen

David H Loo

Jingang Su

A bipolar electrostatic chuck containing apparatus, and a concomitant method, for balancing an electrostatic force that the bipolar electrostatic chuck imparts upon a workpiece. More specifically, the bipolar electrostatic chuck contains a chuck body having a pair of electrodes embedded therein, a primary power supply and an offset power supply. Each electrode within the bipolar electrostatic chuck is respectively connected to a terminal on the primary power. Based upon a voltage produced by the primary power supply and a bias voltage of the workpiece, an offset voltage is applied by the offset power supply to one of the terminals, thus balancing the electrostatic force applied to the workpiece.

Method and apparatus for balancing an electrostatic force produced by an electrostatic chuck

A method of cleaning a contact area of a semiconductor or metal region on a substrate of an electronic device. First, the contact area is cleaned by exposing the substrate to a plasma that includes fluorine-containing species. Second, the substrate is exposed to a second atmosphere that scavenges fluorine, preferably formed by plasma decomposition of a hydrogen-containing gas. The second atmosphere removes any fluorine residue remaining on the contact area and overcomes any need to include argon sputtering in the cleaning process. Another aspect of the invention is a method of depositing a refractory metal over a contact area of a semiconductor region on a substrate. The contact area is cleaned according to the two-step process of the preceding paragraph. Then a refractory metal is deposited over the contact area. The two-step cleaning process can reduce the electrical resistance between the refractory metal and the semiconductor region. Furthermore, if the substrate is annealed to interdiffuse atoms of the semiconductor material and the refractory metal, the two-step cleaning process can reduce the anneal temperature required to achieve a desired low electrical resistance.

Cleaning contact with successive fluorine and hydrogen plasmas

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Jr-Jyan Chen