Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Mitsuru Suehiro

Kazue Takahashi

Toshio Masuda

Hideyuki Yamamoto

Tatehito Usui

Hiroshi Kanekiyo

Hironobu Kawahara

Hiromichi Enami

Saburo Kanai

Seiichiro Kanno

Tetsunori Kaji

Katsuya Watanabe

Ken Yoshioka

Saburou Kanai

Tomoyuki Tamura

Muneo Furuse

Kunihiko Koroyasu

Shigeru Shirayone

A plasma processing apparatus includes a vacuum vessel with a sample stage having a mounting surface disposed in a process chamber, and a plate having substantially uniform thickness and electric power applied thereto constituting a ceiling of the chamber. The plate is disposed opposite to and substantially parallel with the sample stage so as to cover the whole area of the stage mounting surface and has a through-hole therein. An optical transmitter with a diameter larger than a diameter of the though-hole is disposed inside of the vacuum vessel and has an end face at a position above and spaced a small distance a back surface of the plate so as to receive light from the chamber via the through-hole. The optical transmitter is independently detachable with respect to the back surface of the plate.

Plasma processing system and apparatus and a sample processing method

A plasma processing apparatus having a sample stage disposed inside a vacuum chamber and a plate member disposed opposing to a sample which is placed on the sample stage and supplied with electric power. The sample is processed using a plasma generated between the sample stage and the plate member and a measuring port is disposed at a back side of the plate member. The measuring port includes an optical transmitter which receives light from a surface of the sample, and a seal which vacuum-seals between an atmospheric side and vacuum side of the vacuum chamber.

A plasma processing apparatus having a sample bench located in a vacuum chamber, a structure disposed at a position opposed to a sample placed on the sample bench and facing a plasma generated in the vacuum chamber, and at least one through-hole disposed in the structure through which a gas flows into the vacuum chamber. An optical transmitter is mounted on a back of the at least one through-hole through which light from the sample passes, which light is detected by way of the optical transmitter.

A plasma etching method and apparatus in which a processing gas is supplied from a shower plate arranged on an electrode opposed to an electrode for generating a plasma or a sample toward the sample center, and the gas is transformed into a plasma thereby to etch the sample. RF power is applied between a sample stage and the electrode to apply the energy to charged particles in the plasma to thereby etch the sample. In the process, apart from the incidence of the charged particles to the sample, the charged particles enter also the shower plate of the electrode by application of the RF power. The charged particles entering the processing gas supply holes of the shower plate are neutralized to prevent abnormal discharge on the shower plate and consequently suppress the generation of foreign matter.

Plasma etching method

A plasma etching method for etching a sample within an etching chamber having a sidewall, an exchangeable jacket which is held inside of the sidewall, and a heating mechanism proximate to top end of the exchangeable jacket for generating heat which radiates towards an inside of the etching chamber. The plasma etching method further including a step of evacuating the etching chamber by an evacuation system, a step of supplying an etching gas into the etching chamber, a step of generating a plasma for performing etching of the sample in the etching chamber, and a step of conducting a heating operation by the heating mechanism during an initial stage of the step of generating a plasma.

Plasma etching apparatus and plasma etching method

The object of the present invention is to provide a plasma processing apparatus wherein plasma is generated in process chamber to treat a sample. Said plasma processing apparatus is further characterized in that multiple closely packed through-holes are formed on the plate installed on the UHF antenna arranged opposite to the sample, an optical transmitter is installed almost in contact with the back of the through-holes, and an optical transmission means is arranged on the other end of said optical transmitter, thereby measuring optical information coming from the sample and plasma through optical transmitter and optical transmission means by means of a measuring instrument. No abnormal discharge or particle contamination occur to through-holes even in long-term discharge process, and no deterioration occurs to the optical performance at the end face of the optical transmitter. Said plasma processing apparatus ensures stable and high precision measurement of the state of the surface of sample and plasma for a long time.

A wafer processing apparatus comprising a wafer stage, wherein a semiconductor wafer is mounted on the wafer stage so as to process the semiconductor wafer, wherein a holding mechanism of the wafer stage is commonly used for a plurality of wafer stages, and accordingly, the wafer stage can be changed into a wafer stage having a different function so as to process the semiconductor wafer.

Wafer processing apparatus and a wafer stage and a wafer processing method

The vacuum processing apparatus has an atmospheric loader having a plurality of cassette tables and a transport unit for carrying wafers, a vacuum loader equipped with vacuum wafer-processing chambers and a vacuum transport chamber communicating with the processing chambers via gate valves, and a locking unit provided with a loading lock chamber and unloading lock chambers that have gate valves for connecting the atmospheric transport unit and vacuum transport chamber; wherein two etching chambers, formed by UHF-ECR reactors, are arranged symmetrically with respect to an axial line passing through the middle of the vacuum transport chamber and locking unit, only at the opposite side of the locking unit across the vacuum transport chamber, and at an acute angle with respect to the vacuum transport chamber, and UHF-ECR antennas, almost parallel to the foregoing axial line, are opened at the opposite side to that of the vacuum transport chamber.

Vacuum processing apparatus and a vacuum processing system

A wafer stage for holding a semiconductor wafer in a plasma treatment apparatus by setting the wafer on the wafer stage, said wafer stage comprising a base material equipped with refrigerant flow paths for allowing a refrigerant for temperature adjustment to flow; a stress-reducing member provided on the wafer setting side of said base material and having a smaller thermal expansion coefficient than does said base material; a dielectric film provided on the wafer setting side of said stress-reducing member; and a deflection-preventing member provided on the wafer non-setting side of said base material and having a smaller thermal expansion coefficient than does said base material. When the wafer stage is used, the temperature of the wafer as a substrate to be processed can be controlled uniformly and very accurately.

Semiconductor wafer processing apparatus and method

In the plasma processing apparatus for generating plasma in a processing chamber and processing a wafer by mutual action of electromagnetic waves radiated from a UHF band antenna installed in the processing chamber and a magnetic field formed by a magnetic field generator installed around the processing chamber, a hollow tube having one end in communication with an opening in the side wall of the processing chamber and another end, outside the processing chamber, which has a measuring window of plasma optical emission. By setting the lines of force of the magnetic field formed by the magnetic field generator so as to form an angle relative to the hollow tube, entry of plasma into the hollow tube can be prevented, and adhesion of deposits onto the measuring window can be suppressed, whereby the transmission factor of the measuring window can be kept constant over a long period of use.

Plasma processing apparatus

A plasma etching apparatus including a vacuum processing chamber, a plasma generation device, a processing gas supply for supplying processing gas to the processing chamber, an electrode for holding a sample to be processed in the vacuum processing chamber, and an evacuation system for reducing the pressure of the vacuum processing chamber. The processing gas includes at least one kind of gas having a composition for forming a polymerized film by plasma discharge, wherein the processing gas is made plasmatic by plasma discharge in the processing chamber. At least one surface of an inner wall surface of the processing chamber in contact with plasma in the processing chamber and a surface of an internal component part is controlled to a predetermined temperature which is lower than the temperature of the sample to be processed and a strong polymerized film is formed on the inner wall surface of the processing chamber.

Growing community of inventors

Kudamatsu, Japan

Mitsuru Suehiro