Tokyo Electron Limited

Mitsuru Hashimoto

Eiichi Nishimura

Keiichi Shimoda

Akitaka Shimizu

Hiroki Kishi

Akira Koshiishi

Shigeru Tahara

Kunihiko Hinata

Jun Ooyabu

Hideaki Tanaka

Takashi Sone

Satoshi Yamazaki

There is provided a cleaning method for removing a first deposit, formed on an upper electrode through an etching of a metal layer containing a metal, by using a plasma generated between a lower electrode of a lower structure and the upper electrode in a processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus. The method includes a step of colliding ions with the first deposit formed on the upper electrode and a step of removing a second deposit, which is generated by said colliding and formed on the lower structure. Further, a cycle including the step of colliding and the step of removing is repeated multiple times.

Method of cleaning plasma processing apparatus

Provided is a method for etching an etching target layer of a workpiece. The workpiece has a mask on the etching target layer. The etching target layer and the mask are formed from respective materials for which etching efficiency by a plasma of a rare gas having an atomic number greater than an atomic number of argon is higher than etching efficiency for the materials by a plasma of argon gas. The mask is formed from a material having a melting point higher than that of the etching target layer. The method includes (a) exposing the workpiece to a plasma of a first process gas containing a first rare gas having an atomic number greater than the atomic number of argon, and (b) exposing the workpiece to a plasma of a second process gas containing a second rare gas having an atomic number less than the atomic number of argon.

Method for etching layer to be etched

A substrate processing method which is capable of enhancing productivity in manufacturing product substrates. In process chambers of an etching apparatus, etching is carried out on a substrate as an object to be processed, and dummy processing is carried out on at least one non-product substrate before execution of the etching. A host computer determines whether or not the dummy processing is to be executed. The host computer determines whether or not the interior of each of the process chambers and is in a stable state, and omits the execution of the dummy processing when it is determined that it is in the stable state.

Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing method, and program for implementing the method

A ring mechanism, comprising a focus ring and divided cover rings surrounding a wafer W placed on a loading table (lower electrode) mounted in a processing chamber, wherein a ring-shaped clearance &#x3b4;is provided between the divided rings to spread plasma to the radial outside of the focus ring to allow plasma to get therein, whereby a potential difference between the wafer W and the focus ring can be eliminated to prevent arc discharge by plasma from occurring between the wafer W and the focus ring.

Ring mechanism, and plasma processing device using the ring mechanism

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Miyagi, Japan

Mitsuru Hashimoto