Applied Materials, Inc.

Ki Woon Kim

John M White

Soo Young Choi

Shinichi Kurita

Robin L Tiner

Tae Kyung Won

Suhail Anwar

Beom Soo Park

Qunhua Wang

Li Hou

Embodiments of a method of depositing a thin film on a substrate is provided that includes placing a substrate on a substrate support that is mounted in a processing region of a processing chamber, flowing a process fluid through a plurality of gas passages in a diffuser plate toward the substrate supported on the substrate support, wherein the diffuser plate has an upstream side and a downstream side and the downstream side has a substantially concave curvature, and each of the gas passages are formed between the upstream side and the downstream side, and creating a plasma between the downstream side of the diffuser plate and the substrate support.

Plasma uniformity control by gas diffuser hole design

Embodiments of a gas diffuser plate for distributing gas in a processing chamber are provided. The gas distribution plate includes a diffuser plate having an upstream side and a downstream side, and a plurality of gas passages passing between the upstream and downstream sides of the diffuser plate. The gas passages include hollow cathode cavities at the downstream side to enhance plasma ionization. The depths, the diameters, the surface area and density of hollow cathode cavities of the gas passages that extend to the downstream end can be gradually increased from the center to the edge of the diffuser plate to improve the film thickness and property uniformity across the substrate. The increasing diameters, depths and surface areas from the center to the edge of the diffuser plate can be created by bending the diffuser plate toward downstream side, followed by machining out the convex downstream side. Bending the diffuser plate can be accomplished by a thermal process or a vacuum process. The increasing diameters, depths and surface areas from the center to the edge of the diffuser plate can also be created computer numerically controlled machining. Diffuser plates with gradually increasing diameters, depths and surface areas of the hollow cathode cavities from the center to the edge of the diffuser plate have been shown to produce improved uniformities of film thickness and film properties.

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Gumi, South Korea

Ki Woon Kim