International Business Machines Corporation

Robert James Huber

Cherngye Hwang

Diana Perez

John Wesley Williams

David Emery Haney

A method and apparatus for achieving etch rate uniformity in a reactive ion etcher. The reactive ion etcher generates a plasma within a vacuum chamber for etching a substrate disposed at a cathode of a reactor can within the chamber wherein the plasma emanates from a top plate of the reactor can, and is influenced by localized magnetic fields for locally controlling etch rates across the cathode to produce a uniform etch rate distribution across the cathode as a result of the localized magnetic field. The magnet array may be disposed between the top plate and the vacuum chamber for providing the localized magnetic fields. The magnet array includes a plurality of individual magnets and a grid plate for holding the individual magnets in position.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Robert James Huber