Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Mohamad A Ayoub

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Jian J Chen

Amit Kumar Bansal

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Jianhua Zhou

Ramprakash Sankarakrishnan

Thomas E Nowak

Bok Hoen Kim

Patrick Reilly

Shahid Shaikh

Todd J Egan

Xinhai Han

Edward W Budiarto

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Terrance Y Lee

Zhijun Jiang

Michael Wenyoung Tsiang

Jeongmin Lee

Masaki Ogata

Heung Lak Park

Sergey Starik

Dmitriy Panasyuk

Mark A Fodor

Deenesh Padhi

Jay D Pinson, Ii

Abdul Aziz Khaja

Dale Robert Du Bois

Chiu Chan

Visweswaren Sivaramakrishnan

Karthik Janakiraman

Ahmad Lamah

Hichem M'Saad

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Zheng John Ye

Hang Yu

Juan Carlos Rocha

Eller Y Juco

Siu Fai Cheng

Robert Kim

Binh Nguyen

Ramesh Bokka

Derek R Witty

Martin Jay Seamons

Sudha S Rathi

Dale R Dubois

Joseph C Werner

Anton Baryshnikov

Ashish Shah

Winsor T Savery

Shuang Liu

Shilpa Sudhakaran

Dale Du Bois

Hyung-Joon Kim

Eui Kyoon Kim

Win Savery

A method of processing a substrate according to a PECVD process is described. Temperature profile of the substrate is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Plasma density profile is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Chamber surfaces exposed to the plasma are heated to improve plasma density uniformity and reduce formation of low quality deposits on chamber surfaces. In situ metrology may be used to monitor progress of a deposition process and trigger control actions involving substrate temperature profile, plasma density profile, pressure, temperature, and flow of reactants.

PECVD process

Embodiments of the invention contemplate a shadow ring that provides increased or decreased and more uniform deposition on the edge of a wafer. By removing material from the top and/or bottom surfaces of the shadow ring, increased edge deposition and bevel coverage can be realized. In one embodiment, the material on the bottom surface is reduced by providing a recessed slot on the bottom surface. By increasing the amount of material of the shadow ring, the edge deposition and bevel coverage is reduced. Another approach to adjusting the deposition at the edge of the wafer includes increasing or decreasing the inner diameter of the shadow ring. The material forming the shadow ring may also be varied to change the amount of deposition at the edge of the wafer.

Shadow ring for modifying wafer edge and bevel deposition

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods for conditioning an interior wall surface of a remote plasma generator. In one embodiment, a method for processing a substrate is provided. The method includes exposing an interior wall surface of a remote plasma source to a conditioning gas that is in excited state to passivate the interior wall surface of the remote plasma source, wherein the remote plasma source is coupled through a conduit to a processing chamber in which a substrate is disposed, and the conditioning gas comprises an oxygen-containing gas, a nitrogen-containing gas, or a combination thereof. The method has been observed to be able to improve dissociation/recombination rate and plasma coupling efficiency in the processing chamber, and therefore provides repeatable and stable plasma source performance from wafer to wafer.

Conditioning remote plasma source for enhanced performance having repeatable etch and deposition rates

An apparatus for plasma processing a substrate is provided. The apparatus comprises a processing chamber, a substrate support disposed in the processing chamber, and a lid assembly coupled to the processing chamber. The lid assembly comprises a conductive gas distributor coupled to a power source. A tuning electrode may be disposed between the conductive gas distributor and the chamber body for adjusting a ground pathway of the plasma. A second tuning electrode may be coupled to the substrate support, and a bias electrode may also be coupled to the substrate support.

Bottom and side plasma tuning having closed loop control

An apparatus and method are provided for controlling the intensity and distribution of a plasma discharge in a plasma chamber. In one embodiment, a shaped electrode is embedded in a substrate support to provide an electric field with radial and axial components inside the chamber. In another embodiment, the face plate electrode of the showerhead assembly is divided into zones by isolators, enabling different voltages to be applied to the different zones. Additionally, one or more electrodes may be embedded in the chamber side walls.

Tunable ground planes in plasma chambers

Embodiments provide a plasma processing apparatus, substrate support assembly, and method of controlling a plasma process. The apparatus and substrate support assembly include a substrate support pedestal, a tuning assembly that includes a tuning electrode that is disposed in the pedestal and electrically coupled to a radio frequency (RF) tuner, and a heating assembly that includes one or more heating elements disposed within the pedestal for controlling a temperature profile of the substrate, where at least one of the heating elements is electrically coupled to an RF filter circuit that includes a first inductor configured in parallel with a formed capacitance of the first inductor to ground. The high impedance of the RF filters can be achieved by tuning the resonance of the RF filter circuit, which results in less RF leakage and better substrate processing results.

High impedance RF filter for heater with impedance tuning device

Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatus for enhancing deposition rate and improving a plasma profile during plasma processing of a substrate. According to embodiments, the apparatus includes a tuning electrode disposed in a substrate support pedestal and electrically coupled to a variable capacitor. The capacitance is controlled to control the RF and resulting plasma coupling to the tuning electrode. The plasma profile and the resulting deposition rate and deposited film thickness across the substrate are correspondingly controlled by adjusting the capacitance and impedance at the tuning electrode.

Apparatus and method for tuning a plasma profile using a tuning electrode in a processing chamber

A remote plasma source is disclosed that includes a core element and a first plasma block including one or more surfaces at least partially enclosing an annular-shaped plasma generating region that is disposed around a first portion of the core element. The remote plasma source further comprises one or more coils disposed around respective second portions of the core element. The remote plasma source further includes an RF power source configured to drive a RF power signal onto the one or more coils that is based on a determined impedance of the plasma generating region. Energy from the RF power signal is coupled with the plasma generating region via the one or more coils and the core element.

Auto frequency tuned remote plasma source

Growing community of inventors

Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Mohamad A Ayoub