Tokyo Electron Limited

Nobuhiro Iwama

Chishio Koshimizu

Yohei Yamazawa

Akitaka Shimizu

Manabu Iwata

Asao Yamashita

Michiko Nakaya

Tsutomu Higashiura

Fumihiko Higuchi

DongSheng Zhang

Norikazu Murakami

Lee Chen

Akiteru Ko

Hiromasa Mochiki

Masaaki Hagihara

Hiromitsu Kambara

An apparatus, which performs a plasma process on a target substrate by using plasma, includes first and second electrodes in a process chamber to oppose each other. An RF field, which turns a process gas into plasma by excitation, is formed between the first and second electrodes. An RF power supply, which supplies RF power, is connected to the first or second electrode through a matching circuit. The matching circuit automatically performs input impedance matching relative to the RF power. A variable impedance setting section is connected to a predetermined member, which is electrically coupled with the plasma, through an interconnection. The impedance setting section sets a backward-direction impedance against an RF component input to the predetermined member from the plasma. A controller supplies a control signal concerning a preset value of the backward-direction impedance to the impedance setting section.

Plasma processing apparatus

A method for etching a high-k dielectric layer on a substrate in a plasma processing system is described. The high-k dielectric layer can, for example, comprise HfO. The method comprises elevating the temperature of the substrate above 200&#xb0; C. (i.e., typically of order 400&#xb0; C.), introducing a process gas comprising a halogen-containing gas, igniting a plasma from the process gas, and exposing the substrate to the plasma. The process gas can further include a reduction gas in order to improve the etch rate of HfOrelative to Si and SiO.

Method and system for etching a high-k dielectric material

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Nobuhiro Iwama