Lam Research Corporation

Mattson Technology, Inc

Beijing E-town Semiconductor Technology, Co., Ltd

Tokyo Electron Limited

Applied Materials, Inc.

Maolin Long

Alex Paterson

Yuhou Wang

Ying Wu

Ricky Marsh

John Stephen Drewery

Alexander Miller Paterson

Qian Fu

Weimin Zeng

Zhongkui Tan

Seyed Jafar Jafarian-Tehrani

Arthur H Sato

Yu Guan

Richard A Marsh

Neema Rastgar

Changle Guan

Andrej Mitrovic

Steven T Fink

Neil Martin Paul Benjamin

Thomas W Anderson

William Dale Jones

Fred Egley

Paul Moroz

Norman Williams

Michael John Martin

Vikram Singh

Quan Chau

David Sun

Michael Giarratano

Junliang Li

Ralph Lu

Qiqun Zhang

A matchless plasma source is described. The matchless plasma source includes a controller that is coupled to a direct current (DC) voltage source of an agile DC rail to control a shape of an amplified square waveform that is generated at an output of a half-bridge transistor circuit. The matchless plasma source further includes the half-bridge transistor circuit used to generate the amplified square waveform to power an electrode, such as an antenna, of a plasma chamber. The matchless plasma source also includes a reactive circuit between the half-bridge transistor circuit and the electrode. The reactive circuit has a high-quality factor to negate a reactance of the electrode. There is no radio frequency (RF) match and an RF cable that couples the matchless plasma source to the electrode.

Matchless plasma source for semiconductor wafer fabrication

An induction coil assembly is disclosed including two induction coils. Each induction coil includes a first winding commencing from a first terminal end in a first position in the z-direction and transitioning to a radially inner position in a plane normal to the z-direction and a second winding commencing from the radially inner position and transitioning to a radially outer position in a second plane normal to the z-direction and terminating in a second terminal end. Plasma processing apparatuses incorporating the induction coil assembly are also provided.

Induction coil assembly for plasma processing apparatus

Systems and methods for reverse pulsing are described. One of the methods includes receiving a digital signal having a first state and a second state. The method further includes generating a transformer coupled plasma (TCP) radio frequency (RF) pulsed signal having a high state when the digital signal is in the first state and having a low state when the digital signal is in the second state. The method includes providing the TCP RF pulsed signal to one or more coils of a plasma chamber, generating a bias RF pulsed signal having a low state when the digital signal is in the first state and having a high state when the digital signal is in the second state, and providing the bias RF pulsed signal to a chuck of the plasma chamber.

Systems and methods for reverse pulsing

A system and method for generating a radio frequency (RF) waveform are described. The method includes defining a train of on-off pulses separated by an off state having no on-off pulses. The method further includes applying a multi-level pulse waveform that adjusts a magnitude of each of the on-off pulses to generate an RF waveform. The method includes sending the RF waveform to an electrode.

RF pulsing within pulsing for semiconductor RF plasma processing

A plasma processing apparatus including a processing chamber having one or more sidewalls and a dome is provided. The plasma processing apparatus includes a workpiece support disposed in the processing chamber configured to support a workpiece during processing, an induction coil assembly for producing a plasma in the processing chamber, a Faraday shield disposed between the induction coil assembly and the dome, the Faraday shield comprising an inner portion and an outer portion, and a thermal management system. The thermal management system including one or more heating elements configured to heat the dome, and one or more thermal pads disposed between an outer surface of the dome and the heating elements, wherein the one or more thermal pads are configured to facilitate heat transfer between the one or more heating elements and the dome. Thermal management systems and methods for processing workpieces are also provided.

Plasma processing apparatus

Matching circuitry is disclosed for power generation in a plasma processing apparatus or other application. Matching circuitry is provided in a unitary physical enclosure and is configured to provide impedance matching at multiple different frequencies. For example, in a dual frequency implementation, first and second RF generators can provide electromagnetic energy at first and second respective frequencies in a continuous mode or a pulsed mode to matching circuitry that includes first and second circuit portions. The first circuit portion can include one or more first tuning elements configured to receive RF power at a first frequency and provide impedance matching for a first ICP load (e.g., a primary inductive element). The second circuit portion can include one or more second tuning elements configured to receive RF power at a second different frequency and provide impedance matching for a second ICP load (e.g., a secondary inductive element).

Dual frequency matching circuit for inductively coupled plasma (ICP) loads

A pressure control system is provided. The pressure control system includes a member at least partially positioned within a pumping port fluidly coupled between a multi-head processing chamber and a pump configured to evacuate gases from the multi-head processing chamber. The member is rotatable relative to the pumping port. The pressure control system includes a plurality of pressure sensors. Each of the pressure sensors is configured to obtain data indicative of a pressure of a flow of gas entering the multi-head processing chamber at a corresponding head of the multi-head processing chamber. The pressure control system includes an actuator configured to rotate the member to control a pressure of a flow of gas at a first processing head of the multi-head processing chamber.

Pressure control system for a multi-head processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus

A gas injection assembly for injecting gas into a processing chamber is provided. In some examples, the gas injection assembly can include an inlet for receiving a gas flow. The gas injection assembly can include a plurality of gas feed ports for distributing the gas flow received from the inlet. The gas injection assembly can include a plurality of subchannels vertically arranged inside of the gas injection assembly, including: an upper subchannel for receiving the gas flow from the inlet and subdividing the gas flow into a set of orifices to form a first gas flow branch and a second gas flow branch, the first gas flow branch corresponding to a first portion of the gas flow passing through a first subset of the set of orifices and the second gas flow branch corresponding to a second portion of the gas flow passing through a second subset of the set of orifices; and a plurality of outlet subchannels for subdividing the gas flow into the plurality of gas feed ports.

Workpiece processing apparatus with outer gas channel insert

A configurable Faraday shield is provided. The configurable Faraday shield includes a plurality of ribs. Each of the ribs can be spaced apart from one another along a circumferential direction. Furthermore, at least a portion of the configurable Faraday shield is movable between at least a first position and a second position to selectively couple the configurable Faraday shield to a radio frequency ground plane. When the at least a portion of the configurable Faraday shield is in the first position, the configurable Faraday shield can be decoupled from the radio frequency ground plane such that the configurable Faraday shield is electrically floating. Conversely, when the at least a portion of the configurable Faraday shield is in the second position, the configurable Faraday shield can be coupled to the radio frequency ground plane such that the configurable Faraday shield is electrically grounded.

Configurable faraday shield

A substrate processing system includes a processing chamber including a substrate support to support a substrate. A coil includes at least one terminal. An RF source configured to supply RF power to the coil. A dielectric window is arranged on one surface of the processing chamber adjacent to the coil. A contamination reducer includes a first plate that is arranged between the at least one terminal of the coil and the dielectric window.

Metal contamination reduction in substrate processing systems with transformer coupled plasma

Plasma processing apparatus for processing a workpiece are provided. In one example embodiment, a plasma processing apparatus for processing a workpiece includes a processing chamber, a plasma chamber separated from the processing, and an inductively coupled plasma source configured to generate a plasma in the plasma chamber. The apparatus includes a pedestal disposed within the processing chamber configured to support a workpiece. The apparatus includes an insert disposed in the plasma chamber movable to one or more vertical positions within the plasma chamber. Methods for processing of workpieces are also provided.

Plasma strip tool with movable insert

Systems and methods for multi-level pulsing are described. The systems and methods include generating four or more states. During each of the four or more states, a radio frequency (RF) generator generates an RF signal. The RF signal has four or more power levels, and each of the four or more power levels corresponds to the four or more states. The multi-level pulsing facilitates a finer control in processing a substrate.

Systems and methods for multi-level pulsing in RF plasma tools

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Maolin Long