Lam Research Corporation

Applied Materials, Inc.

Reza Sadjadi

Eric A Hudson

Eric H Lenz

Rajinder Dhindsa

Lumin Li

Douglas L Keil

Zhisong Huang

Maxim Mikhailovich Noginov

Vijay D Parkhe

Sangheon Lee

Wendell Glen Boyd, Jr

Andrew Nguyen

Peter K Loewenhardt

Sean S Kang

Jisoo Kim

Haitao Wang

Peter Cirigliano

Ji Soo Kim

Wan-Lin Chen

Jose Tong Sam

Tza-Jing Gung

Andras Kuthi

Chunlei Zhang

Mark Henry Wilcoxson

James V Tietz

Ji Zhu

Helen H Zhu

Xue Chang

Seokmin Yun

Rao Annapragada

Bi-Ming Yen

Daxing Ren

Thomas S Choi

Binet A Worsham

Xue Yang

Kei-Yu Ko

Rajindar Dhindsa

Process chambers having a tunable showerhead and a tunable liner are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a processing chamber includes a showerhead; a chamber liner; a first impedance circuit coupled to the showerhead to tune an impedance of the showerhead; a second impedance circuit coupled to the chamber liner to tune an impedance of the chamber liner; and a controller coupled to the first and second impedance circuits to control relative impedances of the showerhead and the chamber liner.

Process chamber having tunable showerhead and tunable liner

Implementations described herein provide a chucking circuit for a pixilated electrostatic chuck which enables both lateral and azimuthal tuning of the RF coupling between an electrostatic chuck and a substrate placed thereon. In one embodiment, a chucking circuit for an electrostatic chuck (ESC) has one or more chucking electrodes disposed in a dielectric body of the ESC, a plurality of pixel electrodes disposed in the dielectric body, and a chucking circuit having the one or more chucking electrodes and the plurality of pixel electrodes, the chucking circuit operable to electrostatically chuck a substrate to a workpiece support surface of the ESC, the chucking circuit having a plurality of secondary circuits, wherein each secondary circuit includes at least one capacitor of a plurality of capacitors, each secondary circuit is configured to independently control an impedance between one of the pixel electrodes and a ground.

Pixelated capacitance controlled ESC

Implementations described herein provide a magnetic ring which enables both lateral and azimuthal tuning of the plasma in a processing chamber. In one embodiment, the magnetic ring has a body. The body has a top surface and a bottom surface, and a plurality of magnets are disposed on the bottom surface of the body.

Tunable magnetic field to improve uniformity

Implementations described herein provide a pixilated electrostatic chuck which enables both lateral and azimuthal tuning of the RF coupling between an electrostatic chuck and a substrate placed thereon. In one embodiment, the pixilated electrostatic chuck (ESC) may include a dielectric body having a workpiece support surface configured to accept a substrate thereon, one or more chucking electrodes disposed in the pixilated ESC, and a plurality of pixel electrodes. The plurality of pixel electrodes are switchable between a floating state and a grounded state, having variable capacitance to ground, or both. The pixel electrodes and the chucking electrodes form a circuit operable to electrostatically chuck the substrate to the workpiece support surface.

A chamber includes a lower electrode and an upper electrode. The lower electrode is defined to transmit a radiofrequency current through the chamber and to support a semiconductor wafer in exposure to a plasma within the chamber. The upper electrode is disposed above and in a spaced apart relationship with the lower electrode. The upper electrode is electrically isolated from the chamber and is defined by a central section and one or more annular sections disposed concentrically outside the central section. Adjacent sections of the upper electrode are electrically separated from each other by a dielectric material. Multiple voltage sources are respectively connected to the upper electrode sections. Each voltage source is defined to control an electric potential of the upper electrode section to which it is connected, relative to the chamber. The electric potential of each upper electrode section influences an electric potential of the plasma within the chamber.

Apparatus and method for controlling plasma potential

A gas distribution system for supplying different gas compositions to a chamber, such as a plasma processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus is provided. The gas distribution system can include a gas supply section, a flow control section and a switching section. The gas supply section provides first and second gases, typically gas mixtures, to the flow control section, which controls the flows of the first and second gases to the chamber. The chamber can include multiple zones, and the flow control section can supply the first and second gases to the multiple zones at desired flow ratios of the gases. The gas distribution system can continuously supply the first and second gases to the switching section and the switching section is operable to switch the flows of the first and second gases, such that one of the first and second process gases is supplied to the chamber while the other of the first and second gases is supplied to a by-pass line, and then to switch the gas flows. The switching section preferably includes fast switching valves operable to quickly open and close to allow fast switching of the first and second gases, preferably without the occurrence of undesirable pressure surges or flow instabilities in the flow of either gas.

Gas distribution system having fast gas switching capabilities

A method for processing a substrate is provided. The substrate is placed in a process chamber. A gas is provided from a gas source to the process chamber. A plasma is generated from the gas in the process chamber. The gas flows through a gap adjacent to at least one confinement ring to provide physical confinement of the plasma. Magnetic confinement of the plasma is provided to enhance the physical confinement of the plasma.

Magnetic enhancement for mechanical confinement of plasma

A vacuum plasma processor includes a chamber having a grounded wall and an outlet port. Plasma is excited at a first RF frequency in a chamber region spaced from the wall and outlet port. A structure confines the plasma to the region while enabling gas to flow from the region to the outlet port. RF electric power at a second frequency connected to the confining structure causes the confining structure to be at a potential different from ground to increase the size of a sheath between the plasma and confining structure and increase the confining structure effectiveness. The region includes an electrode connected to ground by a circuit that is series resonant to the first frequency and includes capacitance of the sheath.

Electrically enhancing the confinement of plasma

A plasma processing apparatus for processing a substrate is provided. A plasma processing chamber with chamber walls is provided. A substrate support is provided within the chamber walls. At least one confinement ring is provided, where the confinement ring and the substrate support define a plasma volume. A magnetic source for generating a magnetic field for magnetically enhancing physical confinement provided by the at least one confinement ring is provided.

A method and apparatus is provided for using a plasma generated from a processing gas mixture including HO to efficiently strip photoresist material without causing significant damage to exposed, underlying low k dielectric material. The method includes disposing the processing gas mixture including the HO over the wafer. The processing gas mixture including the HO is then transformed into a plasma. The plasma serves to remove the photoresist material from the substrate without adversely affecting the exposed low k dielectric material.

Method for resist strip in presence of low K dielectric material and apparatus for performing the same

A method for etching a feature in a low-k dielectric layer through a photoresist etch mask over a substrate. A gas-modulated cyclic stripping process is performed for more than three cycles for stripping a single photoresist mask. Each cycle of the gas-modulated cyclic stripping process comprises performing a protective layer formation phase and a stripping phase. The protective layer forming phase using first gas chemistry with a deposition gas chemistry, wherein the protective layer forming phase is performed in about 0.005 to 10 seconds for each cycle. The performing the stripping phase for stripping the photoresist mask using a second gas chemistry using a stripping gas chemistry, where the first gas chemistry is different than the second gas chemistry, wherein the etching phase is performed in about 0.005 to 10 seconds for each cycle.

Method for plasma stripping using periodic modulation of gas chemistry and hydrocarbon addition

A two-step process is disclosed for stripping photoresist material from a substrate, wherein the substrate includes a low k dielectric material underlying the photoresist material and a polymer film overlying both the photoresist material and the low k dielectric material. The first step of the two-step process uses an oxygen plasma to remove the polymer film. The second step of the two-step process uses an ammonia plasma to remove the photoresist material, wherein the second step commences after completion of the first step. Each step of the two-step photoresist stripping process is respectively defined by particular values for process parameters including chemistry, temperature, pressure, gas flow rate, radio frequency power and frequency, and duration.

Method for resist strip in presence of regular low k and/or porous low k dielectric materials

A method for forming damascene features in a dielectric layer over a barrier layer over a substrate is provided. A plurality of vias are etched in the dielectric layer to the barrier layer with a plasma etching process in the plasma processing chamber. A patterned photoresist layer is formed with a trench pattern. Within a single plasma process chamber a combination via plug deposition to form plugs in the vias over the barrier layer and trench etch is provided.

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Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Reza Sadjadi