Applied Materials, Inc.

Michael G Chafin

Dennis Stanley Grimard

Shamouil Shamouilian

Andrew Nguyen

Ananda H Kumar

David Palagashvili

Kartik Ramaswamy

Arnold Kholodenko

Michael D Willwerth

Steven C Shannon

Jingbao Liu

Sergey G Belostotskiy

Lu Liu

Anilkumar Rayaroth

Kenneth S Collins

Yang Yang

Vijay D Parkhe

Daniel John Hoffman

Douglas A Buchberger, Jr

Valentin Nikolov Todorow

Fusen E Chen

Alexander Miller Paterson

John F Cameron

Yue Guo

Bryan Y Pu

Siamak Salimian

Hyman J Levinstein

Senh Thach

Alexander M Veytser

Sergio Fukuda Shoji

Ashish Bhatnagar

Haitao Wang

Kenny Linh Doan

Theodoros Panagopoulos

Brad L Mays

Chandra V Deshpandey

Tony Kaushal

Jonathan David Mohn

Semyon L Kats

Kwok Manus Wong

Gerhard M Schneider

Mahmoud Dahimene

Troy S Detrick

Joseph F Salfelder

Taeho Shin

Robert E Ryan

Usama Dadu

Chinh Dinh

Harshad M Borgaonkar

Liang Guo Wang

Ying-Sheng Lin

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to apparatus and method for a tunable plasma process within a plasma processing chamber. In one embodiment of the disclosure, a heater assembly for a plasma processing chamber is disclosed. The heater assembly includes a resistive heating element, a first lead coupling the resistive heating element to an RF filter and a tunable circuit element operable to adjust an impedance between the resistive heating element and the RF filter. Another embodiment provides a method for controlling a plasma process in a plasma processing chamber by forming a plasma from a process gas present inside the plasma processing chamber and adjusting an impedance between a resistive heating element and an RF filter coupled between the resistive heating element and a power source for the resistive heating element, while the plasma is present in the plasma processing chamber.

Method for controlling a plasma process

A radio frequency (RF) filter system for a substrate processing chamber comprises a first RF filter coupled to a first element of the processing chamber and a second RF filter coupled to the first element of the processing chamber. Each of the RF filters comprises a first filter stage configured to reject a first frequency, a second filter stage coupled to the first filter stage and configured to reject a second frequency, and a third filter stage coupled to the second filter stage and configured to reject the first frequency. Further, the first filter stage comprises a first inductor and a first capacitance, the second filter stage comprises a second inductor and a second capacitance, the third filter stage comprises a third inductor and a third capacitance.

Radio frequency filter system for a processing chamber

A method, apparatus and system for dechucking a processing object from a surface of an electrostatic chuck (ESC) in a processing chamber can include applying to the ESC for a first time interval, a first dechuck voltage having a substantially equal magnitude and opposite polarity of a chuck voltage chucking the processing object to the surface of the ESC, selecting a second dechuck voltage having an opposite polarity as the first dechuck voltage, linearly sweeping the ESC voltage from the first dechuck voltage to the second dechuck voltage over a second time interval, monitoring the ESC current during the second time interval until a current spike in the ESC current above a threshold is detected, communicating a command to move support pins up to remove the processing object from the ESC surface, and maintaining the second dechuck voltage until the processing object is separated from the surface of the ESC.

Method, apparatus and system for wafer dechucking using dynamic voltage sweeping

A direct (DC) voltage is applied to an electrode at a voltage value to clamp a workpiece to an electrostatic chuck in a processing chamber. The electrode is embedded into the electrostatic chuck. An electrostatic chuck current through the electrode at the DC voltage is measured. A DC self bias induced on the workpiece by a plasma is determined based on the electrostatic chuck current and the applied voltage.

Non-intrusive measurement of a wafer DC self-bias in semiconductor processing equipment

Undesirable heating of a semiconductor process ring is prevented by thermally isolating the process ring from the insulating puck of an electrostatic chuck, and providing a thermally conductive and electrically insulating thermal ring contacting both the semiconductor process ring and an underlying metal base having internal coolant flow passages.

Plasma reactor electrostatic chuck with cooled process ring and heated workpiece support surface

Methods and systems for temperature enhanced chucking and dechucking of resistive substrates in a plasma processing apparatus are described herein. In certain embodiments, methods and systems incorporate modulating a glass carrier substrate temperature during a plasma etch process to chuck and dechuck the carrier at first temperatures elevated relative to second temperatures utilized during plasma etching. In embodiments, one or more of plasma heat, lamp heat, resistive heat, and fluid heat transfer are controlled to modulate the carrier substrate temperature between chucking temperatures and process temperatures with each run of the plasma etch process.

Temperature enhanced electrostatic chucking in plasma processing apparatus

Embodiments of electrostatic chucks are provided herein. In some embodiments, an electrostatic chuck may include a body having a notched upper peripheral edge, defined by a first surface perpendicular to a body sidewall and a stepped second surface disposed between the first surface and a body upper surface, and a plurality of holes disposed through the body along the first surface; a plurality of fasteners disposed through the plurality of holes to couple the body to a base disposed beneath the body; a dielectric member disposed above the body upper surface to electrostatically retain a substrate; an insulator ring disposed about the body within the notched upper peripheral edge and having a stepped inner sidewall that mates with the stepped second surface to define a non-linear interface therebetween; and an edge ring disposed over the insulator ring, the non-linear interface limiting arcing between the edge ring and the fastener.

Electrostatic chuck with reduced arcing

A method and apparatus for controlling characteristics of a plasma in a semiconductor substrate processing chamber using a dual frequency RF source is provided. The method comprises supplying a first RF signal to a first electrode disposed in a processing chamber, and supplying a second RF signal to the first electrode, wherein an interaction between the first and second RF signals is used to control at least one characteristic of a plasma formed in the processing chamber.

Plasma control using dual cathode frequency mixing

An electrostatic chuck in a reactor chamber has a cathode electrode insulated from ground, a chucking electrode insulated from the cathode electrode and a dielectric layer overlying the chucking electrode that provides a workpiece support surface. A D.C. chucking voltage supply is coupled to the chucking electrode. An RF power generator is coupled to the cathode electrode. A voltage sensing apparatus is coupled to the chucking electrode and to the cathode electrode to monitor the voltage difference between them during discharge after removal of RF and DC power at the conclusion of processing. The reactor includes a controller programmed to raise the lift pins during electrode discharge as soon as the voltage sensing apparatus detects equal voltages simultaneously on the chucking and cathode electrodes.

Time-based wafer de-chucking from an electrostatic chuck having separate RF BIAS and DC chucking electrodes

A substrate processing apparatus has a process chamber with a substrate support, a gas supply to introduce a gas into the chamber, and a gas energizer to energize the gas in the processing of a substrate, thereby generating an effluent gas. A catalytic reactor has an effluent gas inlet to receive the effluent gas and an effluent gas outlet to exhaust treated effluent gas. A heater is adapted to heat the effluent gas in the catalytic reactor. The heated catalytic treatment of the effluent gas abates the hazardous gases in the effluent. An additive gas source and a prescrubber may also be used to further treat the effluent.

Heated catalytic treatment of an effluent gas from a substrate fabrication process

A support,comprises a dielectric,covering a primary electrode,the dielectric,having a surface,adapted to receive a substrate,and a conduit,that extends through the dielectric,The thickness of a portion of the dielectric,between an edge,of the primary electrode,and a surface,of the conduit,is sufficiently large to reduce the incidence of plasma formation in the conduit,when the primary electrode,is charged by an RF voltage to form a plasma of gas in the chamber,during processing of the substrate

Substrate support for plasma processing

A semiconductor wafer chuck for retaining a semiconductor wafer during semiconductor wafer processing in a semiconductor wafer processing system including a connector connecting DC chucking voltage and RF biasing power to an electrode embedded in the body of the chuck. The connector for the chuck includes two or more members joined by resilient banana connections. The connector may be adapted for use as a high temperature connector for an electrostatic chuck operated at an elevated temperature and such connector includes a thermal impedance for reducing the heat transferred from the chuck to the bottom of the connector.

Connectors for an electrostatic chuck and combination thereof

A process chamber 55 for processing a semiconductor substrate 60 in a plasma, comprises a process gas distributor 100 for distributing process gas into a plasma zone 65 in the chamber. An inductor antenna 135 is used to form an inductive plasma from the process gas in the plasma zone. A primary bias electrode 145 on a ceiling 140 of the chamber 55 has a conducting surface 150 exposed to the plasma zone 65. A dielectric member 155 comprising a power electrode 165 embedded therein, has a receiving surface for receiving a substrate 60. A secondary bias electrode 170 below the dielectric member 155 has a conducting surface 175 exposed to the plasma zone 65. An electrode voltage supply 180 maintains the power electrode 165, primary bias electrode 145, and secondary bias electrode 170, at different electrical potentials to provide a high density, highly directional, plasma in the plasma zone 65 of the chamber 55.

High density plasma process chamber

A hybrid Johnsen-Rahbek chuck that provides a combination of both Coulombic and Johnsen-Rahbek chucking mechanisms. More specifically, the chuck contains a plurality of dielectric mesas deposited upon particular regions of the support surface of a chuck. The body of the chuck is generally fabricated from a Johnsen-Rahbek semiconducting dielectric. The mesas are formed from a thin film deposition of a highly-resistive dielectric. Consequently, the thin, highly resistive film prevents excess DC standby current as well as reduces the dependence of the electrostatic chuck performance on the wafer backside morphology and composition.

Hybrid Johnsen-Rahbek electrostatic chuck having highly resistive mesas

An erosion resistant electrostatic chuck 20 for holding a substrate 45 having a peripheral edge 50, in an erosive environment, comprises an electrostatic member 25 including (i) an electrode 30, and (ii) an insulator 35 covering the electrode. A barrier 55 is circumferentially disposed about the electrostatic member 25. The barrier 55 comprises a first contact surface 60 capable of being pressed against the peripheral edge 50 of the substrate 45 to form a seal around the substrate 45 to reduce exposure of the electrostatic member 25 of the chuck 20 to the erosive environment.

Barrier seal for electrostatic chuck

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Michael G Chafin