Oxford Instruments Nanotechnology Tools Limited

Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology Limited

Michael Cooke

Andrew Goodyear

Mark Edward McNie

Leslie Michael Lea

Yiping Song

Geoffrey Hassall

Joao L G Ferreira

This disclosure relates to a surface processing apparatus for use in the surface processing of a substrate. The surface processing apparatus comprises a plasma source including a wall defining a plasma chamber and an excitation source adjacent the wall and a processing chamber in which a substrate having a predetermined maximum lateral dimension is mounted in use, the processing chamber being operatively connected to the plasma source. A transmission plate for the transmission of plasma in use is arranged between the plasma source and processing chamber, the transmission plate comprising a plurality of apertures. The apertures follow a non-rectilinear path through the transmission plate such that there is no line of sight in use between a substrate with the predetermined maximum lateral dimension mounted in the processing chamber and the most intense region of the plasma in the plasma chamber.

Surface processing apparatus

There is provided an apparatus for cyclical plasma etching of a substrate, the apparatus comprising: a process chamber; a support within the process chamber for receiving the substrate to be etched; a controller for repeatedly applying a dosing step and a bombardment steps respectively; a dosing controller for controlling the flow of a process gas in the dosing step such that the substrate is exposed to a maximum dose of process gas in use of 1000 Langmuirs and said dose is controllable within an accuracy of 1 Langmuir; and a first signal generator coupled to the process chamber and a second signal generator coupled to the support within the process chamber, the first and second signal generators being configured such that in use positions ions of an plasma active species within the process chamber have a substrate bombardment energy in the range of 10 eV to 100 eV which is controllable within an accuracy of 5 eV. There is also provided a method for cyclical plasma etching of a substrate using said apparatus.

Cyclical plasma etching

A method of electrostatically clamping a dielectric wafer to a processing table during plasma processing is described. The table has interdigitated electrodes embedded therein. The method comprises applying respective voltages of opposite first and second polarities to adjacent electrodes wherein polarization charges are induced in the wafer with opposite polarity to the respective underlying electrodes thereby electrostatically clamping the wafer to the table; and, after a predetermined time (t), reversing the polarities of the voltages so that the polarization charges and electrostatic clamping continues. The on time (t) of each of the first and second polarities is preselected to be The time (t) for switching between the first and second polarities is less than the time (T) and less than 2 seconds.

Electrostatic clamping method and apparatus

Methods are disclosed for depositing material onto and/or etching material from a substrate in a surface processing tool having a processing chamber, a controller and one or more devices for adjusting the process parameters within the chamber. The method comprises: the controller instructing the one or more devices according to a series of control steps, each control step specifying a defined set of process parameters that the one or more devices are instructed to implement, wherein at least one of the control steps comprises the controller instructing the one or more devices to implement a defined set of constant process parameters for the duration of the step, including at least a chamber pressure and gas flow rate through the chamber, which duration is less than the corresponding gas residence time (T) of the processing chamber for the step.

Methods and apparatus for depositing and/or etching material on a substrate

Apparatus is provided for plasma treating a substrate. This has a chamber () and a plasma generator () which forms a plasma from one or more gases flowing within the chamber so as to produce one or more species for interacting with a substrate () placed within the chamber. A guide () is provided for directing the gas flow containing the species towards the substrate (). When in use, the width of the plasma is greater than that of the substrate by an amount defining an outer region of plasma. The guide is adapted to direct the species from at least substantially all of the outer region of the plasma towards the substrate. A corresponding method of plasma treatment is also disclosed.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Michael Cooke