Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Shamouil Shamouilian

Ananda H Kumar

Arnold Kholodenko

Dennis Stanley Grimard

Alexander M Veytser

Kadthala Ramaya Narendrnath

Surinder S Bedi

Manoocher Birang

John F Cameron

You Wang

Semyon L Kats

Michael Santiago Cox

Peter K Loewenhardt

Canfeng Lai

Semyon Sherstinsky

Kwok Manus Wong

Tony Kaushal

Wing Lau Cheng

Edwin Charles Weldon

Jon T Clinton

Kenneth S Collins

Hyman J Levinstein

Chandra V Deshpandey

Arik Donde

Liang-Guo Wang

Sasson Roger Somekh

Ashish Bhatnagar

Padmanabhan Krishnaraj

Michael G Chafin

Kartik Ramaswamy

Dan Maydan

Alfred W Mak

Tsutomu Tanaka

Brian C Lue

Robert J Steger

Timothy S Dyer

Pavel Ionov

Simon W Tam

Ron Northrup

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Vijay D Parkhe

Christopher F Lane

Hamid Noorbakhsh

Andreas G Hegedus

Siamak Salimian

John P Parks

Robert W Wu

Yuh-Jia (Jim) Su

Syed Hasan Askari

Mehran Moalem

Robert B Majewski

David P Wanamaker

Guang-Jye Shiau

Alfred Goldspeil

Semyon Shertinsky

Michael Robert Rice

Jennifer Y Sun

Joseph Yudovsky

Thomas E Nowak

Zhenjiang Cui

Salvador P Umotoy

Daniel O Clark

Xiaoxiong Yuan

Senh Thach

Jon McChesney

Donald J Olgado

Peter I Porshnev

Paul E Luscher

Joseph Stevens

Sebastien Raoux

Jonathan David Mohn

Gerhard M Schneider

Mahmoud Dahimene

Samuel Broydo

Efrain Quiles

Robert E Ryan

Ron L Rose

Alfred Abraham Goldspiel

Harshad M Borgaonkar

Yoshi Tanase

Liang Guo Wang

Mark Contreras

Anand H Kumar

Sasson Someth

Rita Dukes

Pamanabhan Krishnaraj

Eric Farahmand E Askarinam

Anada H Kumar

Ricardo Leon

A continuous in situ process of deposition, etching, and deposition is provided for forming a film on a substrate using a plasma process. The etch-back may be performed without separate plasma activation of the etchant gas. The sequence of deposition, etching, and deposition permits features with high aspect ratios to be filled, while the continuity of the process results in improved uniformity.

In situ application of etch back for improved deposition into high-aspect-ratio features

A transformer-coupled plasma source using toroidal cores forms a plasma with a high-density of ions along the center axis of the torus. In one embodiment, cores of a plasma generator are stacked in a vertical alignment to enhance the directionality of the plasma and generation efficiency. In another embodiment, cores are arranged in a lateral array into a plasma generating plate that can be scaled to accommodate substrates of various sizes, including very large substrates. The symmetry of the plasma attained allows simultaneous processing of two substrates, one on either side of the plasma generator.

Multi-core transformer plasma source

A method of cleaning a semiconductor fabrication processing chamber involves recirculation of cleaning gas components. Consequently, input cleaning gas is utilized efficiently, and undesirable emissions are reduced. The method includes flowing a cleaning gas to an inlet of a processing chamber, and exposing surfaces of the processing chamber to the cleaning gas to clean the surfaces, thereby producing a reaction product. The method further includes removing an outlet gas including the reaction product from an outlet of the processing chamber, separating at least a portion of the reaction product from the outlet gas, and recirculating a portion of the outlet gas to the inlet of the processing chamber.

Semiconductor device fabrication chamber cleaning method and apparatus with recirculation of cleaning gas

A substrate processing apparatus has a process chamber with a substrate support, a gas supply to introduce a gas into the chamber, and a gas energizer to energize the gas in the processing of a substrate, thereby generating an effluent gas. A catalytic reactor has an effluent gas inlet to receive the effluent gas and an effluent gas outlet to exhaust treated effluent gas. A heater is adapted to heat the effluent gas in the catalytic reactor. The heated catalytic treatment of the effluent gas abates the hazardous gases in the effluent. An additive gas source and a prescrubber may also be used to further treat the effluent.

Heated catalytic treatment of an effluent gas from a substrate fabrication process

A substrate support assembly for supporting a substrate during processing is provided. In one embodiment, a support assembly includes a ceramic body having an embedded heating element and a base plate. The base plate and the ceramic body define a channel therebetween adapted to supply purge gas to a perimeter of a substrate disposed on the support assembly. The base plate is fastened to the body by brazing, adhering, fastening, press fitting or by mating engaging portions of a retention device such as a bayonet fitting.

Ceramic substrate support

A plasma processing apparatus and a method of operating a plasma processing apparatus are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first RF signal at a carrier frequency and a second RF signal at a second frequency are generated. An amplitude modulated signal is formed by modulating the first RF signal with the second RF signal. A plasma is generated within the plasma processing chamber using the amplitude modulated signal. Generating plasma using a frequency modulated signal is also disclosed.

RF power delivery for plasma processing using modulated power signal

An electrostatic chuck has an electrode capable of being electrically charged to electrostatically hold a substrate. A composite layer covers the electrode. The composite layer comprises (1) a first dielectric material covering a central portion of the electrode, and (2) a second dielectric material covering a peripheral portion of the electrode, the second dielectric material having a different composition than the composition of the first dielectric material. The chuck is useful in a plasma process chamber to process substrates, such as semiconductor wafers.

Electrostatic chuck having composite dielectric layer and method of manufacture

A toroidal plasma source ( ) within a substrate processing chamber ( ). The toroidal plasma source forms a poloidal plasma with theta symmetry. The poloidal plasma current is essentially parallel to a surface of the plasma generating structure, thus reducing sputtering erosion of the inner walls. The plasma current is similarly essentially parallel to a process surface ( ) of a substrate ( ) within the chamber. In a further embodiment, a shaped member ( ) between the substrate and the plasma source controls the plasma density in a selected fashion to enhance plasma processing uniformity.

Toroidal plasma source for plasma processing

An apparatus and method for reducing hazardous gases exhausted from a process chamber includes an effluent plasma reactor and a downstream catalytic reactor . The reactor may include a consumable liner that reacts with the energized effluent to remove the hazardous gases. The catalytic reactor may also include catalytic surfaces in a honeycomb, foam, or pellet structure to catalyze reactions that further reduce hazardous gas content.

Abatement of hazardous gases in effluent

A substrate processing chamber has a substrate support, a gas supply, a gas exhaust, a gas energizer, and a wall about the substrate support, the wall having a porous ceramic material at least partially infiltrated with a fluorinated polymer, whereby a substrate on the substrate support may be processed by gas introduced by the gas supply, energized by the gas energizer, and exhausted by the gas exhaust.

Process chamber having a corrosion-resistant wall and method

A method for reducing hazardous gases exhausted from a process chamber includes an effluent gas treatment system with a gas energizing reactor and an additive gas source. Additive gas comprising reactive gas is introduced into the effluent from the process chamber in a volumetric flow rate in relation to the hazardous gas content in the effluent.

Treatment of hazardous gases in effluent

A semiconductor wafer support chuck having small diameter gas distribution ports for heat transfer gas. The diameter ports inhibit plasma ignition in heat transfer gas distribution channels. The ports are less than 20 mils in diameter less than 3 mm in length. The short length of the ports facilitates fabrication of multiple ports of very small diameter. The ports communicate with a gas distribution plenum integrated into the body of the chuck beneath a wafer support surface. The plenum has radial channels and a peripheral groove for distributing heat transfer gas to the wafer support surface.

Multi-layer ceramic electrostatic chuck with integrated channel

Apparatus for processing semiconductor wafers includes a processing chamber, a chuck within the chamber for supporting a wafer during processing, a fiberoptic cable having a first end positioned at the surface of the chuck, and an optical pyrometer connected to a second end of the cable. The optical pyrometer measures the temperature of a wafer during processing and measures in situ temperature of plasma-excited cleaning gas introduced into the chamber during subsequent cleaning from walls thereof of unwanted solid deposits within the chamber. The pyrometer is connected to a computer which controls the flow of cleaning gases. When the temperature of the plasma-excited gas reaches a steady-state value the computer stops the flow of cleaning gases into the chamber and thereby stops the cleaning operation.

Apparatus and method for detecting an end point of chamber cleaning in semiconductor equipment

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Shamouil Shamouilian