Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Applied Materials, Inc.

Angstron Systems, Inc.

Other

Angstrom Systems, Inc.

Karl Frederick Leeser

Sunil Kapoor

Adrien Lavoie

Paul Konkola

Douglas L Keil

Edward J Augustyniak

Tony P Chiang

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Easwar Srinivasan

Hu Kang

Yaswanth Rangineni

Shankar Swaminathan

Frank Loren Pasquale

Chloe Baldasseroni

Mohamed Sabri

Hyungjoon Kim

David Charles Smith

Andrew Duvall

Jun Qian

Ishtak Karim

Patrick G Breiling

Yukinori Sakiyama

Chunguang Xia

Eller Y Juco

Bradford J Lyndaker

Richard M Blank

David Michael French

Vince Burkhart

Jeffrey A Brown

Jason E Babcoke

Damien Martin Slevin

Timothy Scott Thomas

Ramkishan Rao Lingampalli

Ted Minshall

Aaron Logan

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Dennis Michael Hausmann

Jon Henri

Purushottam Kumar

Frank Greer

Sean M Donnelly

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia

Edmund Minshall

Sesha Varadarajan

Vincent Burkhart

Shane Tang

Liang Meng

Michael John Selep

David William Kamp

James Samuel Sims

Adrien LaVoie

Jacob Lee Hiester

Robert Anthony Sculac

Jeremy Tucker

Aaron Bingham

Michael Nordin

Sung Je Kim

Thomas Frederick

Chunhai Ji

John Folden Stumpf

Brett Herzig

David Alan Metz

Brian Knight

Yi Chung Chiu

Wei-Chih Lai

John Patrick Holland

David Cohen

Alan M Schoepp

Akhil N Singhal

Huatan Qiu

John Wiltse

Colin F Smith

Alexander Dulkin

Saangrut Sangplung

John Ruffell

Joel Philip Hollingsworth

Thomas G Jewell

Peter John Woytowitz

Michael Rumer

Cody Barnett

Jeongseok Ha

Jeremiah Baldwin

Eashwar Ranganathan

Noah Elliot Baker

Sam Jafarian Tehrani

Ingi Bae

Kie-Jin Park

Damien Long

Norman Nakashima

Heather Landis

An apparatus including a multi-station processing chamber with a top plate and a bottom portion encloses stations each including a pedestal assembly. A spindle centrally located between the stations is configured to rotate about a central axis, and is electrically connected to the bottom portion. An actuator controls movement of the spindle in the Z-direction. An indexer connected to the spindle rotates with the spindle, and includes extensions each configured to interface with a corresponding substrate for substrate transfer. An electrically conductive interface movably connected to the top plate provides an RF return path. Another actuator coupled to the grounding interface controls movement of the electrically conductive interface in the Z-direction. The electrically conductive interface moves downwards in the Z-direction to make contact with the indexer when each of the plurality of extensions is parked and the spindle is moved to a lower position during plasma processing.

Process module chamber providing symmetric RF return path

A matching module includes an input terminal connected to an input node, a variable load capacitor, and a plurality of RF signal delivery branches. The input terminal is connected to receive RF signals from one or more RF generators. The load capacitor is connected between the input node and a reference ground potential. Each of the plurality of RF signal delivery branches has a respective ingress terminal connected to the input node and a respective egress terminal connected to a respective one of a plurality of output terminals. Each of the plurality of output terminals of the matching module is connected to deliver RF signals to a different one of a plurality of plasma processing stations/chambers. Each of the plurality of RF signal delivery branches includes a corresponding inductor and a corresponding variable tuning capacitor electrically connected in a serial manner between its ingress terminal and its egress terminal.

Multiple-output radiofrequency matching module and associated methods

An apparatus for providing signals to a device may include one or more radiofrequency signal generators, and electrically-small transmission line, which couples signals from the one or more RF signal generators to the fabrication chamber. The apparatus may additionally include a reactive circuit to transform impedance of the electrically-small transmission line from a region of relatively high impedance-sensitivity to region of relatively low impedance-sensitivity.

Impedance transformation in radio-frequency-assisted plasma generation

System and methods for processing a substrate using a reactor with multiple heating zones and control of said heating zones using a common terminal shared between two power supplies are provided. The reactor includes a heater assembly for supporting the substrate and a showerhead for supplying process gases into the reactor. An inner heater and an outer heater are integrated in the heater assembly. An inner power supply has a positive terminal connected to a first end of the inner heater and a negative terminal is connected to a second end of the inner heater that is coupled to a common terminal. An outer power supply has a positive terminal connected to a first end of the outer heater and a negative terminal connected to a second end of the outer heater that is coupled to the common terminal. A common-terminal heater module is configured to receive a measured temperature that is proximate to the inner heater. A desired temperature setting is received and a servo control law is processed to identify a direct control setting of an inner voltage of the inner power supply and an open-loop control setting of an outer voltage for the outer power supply. The outer voltage is defined as a ratio of the inner voltage.

Common terminal heater for ceramic pedestals used in semiconductor for fabrication

An in situ protective coating is deposited on surfaces of chamber components of a reaction chamber at high temperatures. The in situ protective coating may be deposited at a temperature greater than about 200° C. to provide a high quality coating that is resistant to certain types of halogen chemistries, such as fluorine-based species, chlorine-based species, bromine-based species, or iodine-based species. Subsequent coatings or layers may be deposited on the in situ protective coating having different etch selectivities than the underlying in situ protective coating. The in situ protective coating may be deposited throughout the reaction chamber to deposit on surfaces of the chamber components, including on chamber walls.

In situ protective coating of chamber components for semiconductor processing

In some examples, a substrate support assembly comprises a monolithic ceramic body, a heater element disposed within the monolithic ceramic body, and an RF antenna disposed within the monolithic ceramic body. One or more power lines supplies the heater element and the RF antenna. A lamellar structure is formed or included within the monolithic ceramic body, the lamellar structure including at least one layer having a thermal conductivity different than a thermal conductivity of the monolithic ceramic body.

Lamellar ceramic structure

In particular embodiments, anomalous plasma events, which may include formation of an electric arc in a semiconductor processing chamber, may be detected and mitigated. In certain embodiments, a method may include detecting an optical signal emitted by a plasma, converting the optical signal to a voltage signal, and forming an adjusted voltage signal. Responsive to determining that the changes associated with the adjusted voltage signal exceed a threshold, an output power of an RF signal coupled to the chamber may be adjusted. Such adjustment may mitigate formation of the anomalous plasma event occurring within the chamber.

Anomalous plasma event detection and mitigation in semiconductor processing

A process module for a substrate processing tool includes a plurality of processing stations each configured to perform a process on a substrate and a mechanical indexer arranged within the process module. The mechanical indexer includes a plurality of end effectors including at least a first end effector, a second end effector, and a third end effector. Each of the plurality of end effectors extends in a radial direction from a central axis of the mechanical indexer and is configured to rotate about the central axis within the process module. The mechanical indexer is configured to position each of the plurality of end effectors at any one of the plurality of processing stations within the process module. The mechanical indexer is configured to position more than one of the plurality of end effectors at a same one of the plurality of processing stations at a same time.

Mechanical indexer for multi-station process module

Various embodiments herein relate to apparatuses and methods for distortion of pulses for wafer biasing. In some embodiments, a method is provided, the method comprising: causing a distorted pulse to be applied to an electrode of a pedestal such that the distorted pulse at least partially compensates for attenuation between the pedestal and the substrate, and such that a waveform resulting from the distorted pulse, when imparted to the substrate, is substantially square.

Distortion of pulses for wafer biasing

A system includes an electrode. The electrode includes a showerhead having a first stem portion and a head portion. A plurality of dielectric layers is vertically stacked between the electrode and a first surface of a conducting structure. The plurality of dielectric layers includes M dielectric layers arranged adjacent to the head portion and P dielectric portions arranged around the first stem portion. The plurality of dielectric layers defines a first gap between the electrode and one of the plurality of dielectric layers, a second gap between adjacent ones of the plurality of dielectric layers, and a third gap between a last one of the plurality of dielectric layers and the first surface. A number of the plurality of dielectric layers and sizes of the first gap, the second gap, and the third gap are selected to prevent parasitic plasma between the first surface and the electrode.

Mechanical suppression of parasitic plasma in substrate processing chamber

Various embodiments include apparatuses and methods to form the apparatus. In one embodiment, the apparatus is a flow meter having inlet and outlet portions for transporting a fluid along a flow path. A flow-restrictor element is formed within the flow path to impart a pressure drop to the fluid. A flow sensor has a first surface of the flow sensor in direct fluid communication with fluid flowing upstream of the flow-restrictor element and a second surface, on a portion of the flow sensor opposite to the first surface, in direct fluid communication with fluid flowing downstream of the flow-restrictor element. The flow sensor senses a differential pressure in the fluid due to the at least one flow-restrictor element. Other apparatuses and systems are disclosed.

Differential-pressure-based flow meters

A substrate processing system for processing a substrate within a processing chamber is provided and includes a source terminal, a substrate support, and a tuning circuit. The substrate support holds the substrate and includes first and second electrodes, which receive power from a power source via the source terminal. The tuning circuit is connected to the first electrode or the second electrode. The tuning circuit is allocated for tuning signals provided to the first electrode. The tuning circuit includes at least one of a first impedance set or a second impedance set. The first impedance set is serially connected between the first electrode and the power source and receives a first signal from the power source via the source terminal. The second impedance set is connected between an output of the power source and a reference terminal and receives the first signal from the power source via the source terminal.

RF tuning systems including tuning circuits having impedances for setting and adjusting parameters of electrodes in electrostatic chucks

In joining composite ceramic bodies, at least one ceramic body is a compositionally graded with varying concentrations between two or more ceramic materials. The compositionally graded ceramic body terminates at an interfacial layer that is substantially composed of a single ceramic material. The compositionally graded ceramic body is joined to another ceramic body that may also be compositionally graded or made of a single ceramic material, and an interfacial layer of the other ceramic body is identical in composition with the interfacial layer of the compositionally graded ceramic body. In some embodiments, the ceramic bodies may be joined by diffusion bonding. In some embodiments, the ceramic bodies include a ceramic platen and ceramic stem of a wafer pedestal implemented in a plasma processing apparatus.

Joining techniques for composite ceramic bodies

An apparatus and method for performing closed-loop multiple-output control of radio frequency (RF) matching for a semiconductor wafer fabrication process is provided. An apparatus for providing signals to a station of a process chamber performs semiconductor fabrication processes. A plurality of signal generators generates signals having first and second frequencies. A measurement circuit measures a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR). A match reflection optimizer has a reactive component configured to be adjusted responsive to an output signal from the measurement circuit.

Closed-loop multiple-output radio frequency (RF) matching

A mutually induced filter for filtering radio frequency (RF) power from signals supplied to a load is described. The mutually induced filter includes a first portion connected to a first load element of the load for filtering RF power from one of the signals supplied to the first load element. The load is associated with a pedestal of a plasma chamber. The mutually induced filter further includes a second portion connected to a second load element of the load for filtering RF power from another one of the signals supplied to the second load element. The first and second portions are twisted with each other to be mutually coupled with each other to further facilitate a coupling of a resonant frequency associated with the first portion to the second portion.

Mutually induced filters

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West Linn, OR, United States of America

Karl Frederick Leeser