Ulvac, Inc.

Qlvac, Inc.

Naoki Morimoto

Masahiko Ishida

Tomoyasu Kondo

Hideto Nagashima

Daisuke Mori

Kyuzo Nakamura

Tadashi Morita

Shinya Nakamura

Hiroki Yamamoto

Junichi Hamaguchi

Akifumi Sano

Akira Igari

Kenichi Imakita

Ayao Nabeya

Kouji Sokabe

Kouji Sogabe

Yuta Ando

In a method in which inside a vacuum chamber, a silicon target and a to-be-deposited object are disposed in a positional relationship to face each other; a sputtering gas, containing therein nitrogen gas, is introduced into the vacuum chamber which is in a vacuum atmosphere; a negative potential is applied to the silicon target such that a silicon nitride film having a tensile stress is deposited in a reactive sputtering on a surface of the to-be-deposited object that is placed in an electrically floated state. The method includes steps: in which the to-be-deposited object is made to a state in which a bias potential is free from being applied thereto; and at least one of a flow ratio of the nitrogen gas to the sputtering gas, and the potential to be applied to the silicon target is controlled such that the surface of the silicon target can be maintained in a transition mode.

Method of depositing silicon nitride film, apparatus for depositing film, and silicon nitride film

A sputtering apparatus includes: a vacuum chamber in which a target is to be disposed; a power supply to input power to the target; gas introduction device; exhaust device; and substrate holding device to hold a substrate to be processed. The substrate holding device includes: a chuck main body having positive and negative electrodes; a chuck plate having a rib portion capable of bringing a peripheral edge portion of the substrate into surface contact with the rib portion; and a multiplicity of supporting portions provided upright and arranged at predetermined intervals in an interior space surrounded by the rib portion; and a DC power supply to apply a direct voltage between the two electrodes. The sputtering apparatus suppresses a variation in film thickness among substrates.

Sputtering apparatus and sputtering method

The sputtering apparatus has: a vacuum chamber in which a substrate is disposed; a cathode unit which is disposed inside the vacuum chamber so as to lie opposite to the substrate. The cathode unit has mounted a bottomed cylindrical target material from a bottom side thereof into at least one recessed portion formed in one surface of a holder, and has assembled therein a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field in an inside space of the target material. The sputtering apparatus further has: an anode shield to which a positive electric potential is applied; a gas introduction device for introducing a sputtering gas into the vacuum chamber; a power supply for activating power to the cathode unit; a vertical magnetic field generator including coils disposed along a wall surface of the vacuum chamber about a reference axis connecting the cathode unit and the substrate, and a power supply; and a controller for switching on or off the introduction of the sputtering gas from the gas introduction device.

A substrate holding device for clamping a substrate in a processing chamber in which plasma processing is carried out includes a chuck main body having positive and negative electrodes and, a chuck plate having a rib portion capable of bringing the peripheral edge portion of the substrate into surface contact therewith and multiple support portions provided upright and arranged at predetermined intervals in an internal space surrounded by the rib portion, a DC power supply for applying a DC voltage between the two electrodes, an AC power supply for passing an alternating current through the capacitance of the chuck plate, and first measuring means for measuring the alternating current passing through the capacitance of the chuck plate, and further includes removing means for removing an AC component superimposed on the alternating current from a plasma produced in the processing chamber during plasma processing.

Substrate holding device

A film formation apparatus and film formation method that improve film thickness uniformity. A rotation mechanism holds a target having a sputtered surface in a state inclined relative to a surface of a substrate. The rotation mechanism rotatably supports the target about an axis extending along a normal of the sputtered surface. The target supported by the rotation mechanism is sputtered to form a thin film on the surface of the substrate. When forming the thin film, the rotation mechanism maintains the rotational angle of the target.

Film forming apparatus and film forming method

There is provided an inexpensive cathode unit which is simple in construction and is capable of forming a film at good coating characteristics relative to each of micropores of high aspect ratio throughout an entire surface of a substrate. There is also provided a sputtering apparatus provided with the cathode unit. The cathode unit of this invention has a holder formed with one or more recessed portions on one surface thereof. Inside the recessed portions there are mounted bottomed cylindrical target members from the bottom side thereof. Into a space inside each of the target members there are built magnetic field generating means for generating magnetic fields.

Cathode unit and sputtering apparatus provided with the same

The electrostatic chuck is made up of: a chuck main body having electrodes; a chuck plate of a dielectric material and having a rib portion with which a peripheral edge portion of the substrate is capable of coming into surface contact, and a plurality of supporting portions which are vertically disposed at a predetermined distance from one another in an inner space enclosed by the rib portion; and a gas introduction means for introducing a predetermined gas into the inner space. When the substrate is held by the electrostatic chuck which is arranged to attract the substrate by the chuck plate and to form a gas atmosphere by supplying a predetermined gas into the inner space, a current value is monitored by causing an AC current to flow in a capacitance of the chuck plate through an AC power supply, a gas flow amount is monitored by causing the gas to flow through the gas introduction means, and a substrate state is managed based on a variation in at least one of the current value and the gas flow amount to prevent damages to the substrate.

Method of managing substrate

There is provided an inexpensive sputtering apparatus in which self-sputtering can be stably performed by accelerating the ionization of the atoms scattered from a target. The sputtering apparatus has: a target which is disposed inside a vacuum chamber so as to lie opposite to the substrate W to be processed; a magnet assembly which forms a magnetic field in front of the sputtering surface of the target; and a DC power supply which charges the target with a negative DC potential. A first coil is disposed in a central portion of a rear surface of the sputtering surface of the target. The first coil is electrically connected between the first power supply and the output to the target. When a negative potential is charged to the target by the sputtering power supply, the electric power is charged to the first coil, whereby a magnetic field is generated in front of the sputtering surface.

Sputtering apparatus

To provide a technique which cleans an attracting face of a mechanism for electrostatically attracting an object to be processed inside a vacuum processing apparatus and keeps its attracting force constant. The method of the present invention is for cleaning an attracting face of a hot plate which holds the object to be processed inside a vacuum processing chamber through electrostatic attraction. The invention method includes a step of cleaning the attracting face of the hot plate by applying a high-frequency electric power of 13.56 MHz to a metallic base arranged under and near the hot plate in a state in which a cleaning gas is introduced into the vacuum processing chamber.

Cleaning method and a vacuum processing apparatus

In order to form a thin film having a high aspect ratio, a space between a target within a vacuum chamber and a substrate table is enclosed by an anode electrode and earth electrodes. The anode electrode is positioned on the side of the target, and a positive voltage is applied. The earth electrodes are positioned on the side of the substrate table and are connected to earth potential. A trajectory of sputtering particles curved in the direction of flying off by the anode electrode is corrected and is made incident in a perpendicular manner to a surface of the substrate on the substrate table. The amount of sputtering particles incident to the surface of the substrate can therefore be increased and made perpendicularly incident; and a thin film of a high aspect ratio can be formed.

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Susono, Japan

Naoki Morimoto