Tokyo Electron Limited

Takashi Enomoto

Yoshio Ishikawa

Alok Ranjan

Tsuyoshi Moriya

Akiteru Ko

Sergey Alexandrovich Voronin

Jason Marion

Akiteru Koh

Hiroyuki Takahashi

Masanobu Honda

Kazuya Nagaseki

Akitaka Shimizu

Asao Yamashita

Daniel Joseph Prager

Sonam D Sherpa

Akinori Kitamura

Takashi Fuse

Masafumi Urakawa

Yusuke Yoshida

Vinh Hoang Luong

Arthur H Laflamme, Jr

Masaaki Hagihara

Kiwamu Fujimoto

Tomoyo Yamaguchi

Yutaka Osada

Edward Heller

Hiromi Oka

Vaidya Bharadwaj

Shinji Hamamoto

Hiroharu Ito

Takashi Tsuruta

A time required to return an inside of the chamber after performing maintenance of the inside of the chamber into a state prior to the maintenance can be shortened. A seasoning method includes a first dry cleaning process of cleaning the inside of the chamber by supplying an Ogas into the chamber and generating plasma of the Ogas within the chamber; and a second dry cleaning process of seasoning, after the first dry cleaning process, the inside of the chamber by supplying a processing gas containing fluorine into the chamber and generating plasma of the processing gas within the chamber.

Seasoning method and etching method

Systems and methods are disclosed for plasma discharge ignition to reduce surface particles and thereby decrease defects introduced during plasma processing. A microelectronic workpiece is positioned on a holder within a process chamber that includes a first radio frequency (RF) power source configured to couple RF power to a top portion of the process chamber, a second RF power source configured to couple RF power to the holder, and a direct current (DC) power supply. Initially, a process gas for plasma process is flowed into the process chamber. The process gas is ignited to form plasma by activating the second RF power source to apply RF power to the holder. Subsequently, the microelectronic workpiece is clamped to the holder by applying the positive voltage to the holder with the DC power supply, and the first RF power source is activated to maintain the plasma within the process chamber.

System and method of plasma discharge ignition to reduce surface particles

A plasma processing method and apparatus are provided in which current spikes associated with application of a voltage to an electrostatic chuck (ESC) are minimized or reduced when the processing plasma is present. According to an example, the voltage is applied to the ESC after the processing plasma is struck, however the voltage is ramped or increased in a step-wise manner to achieve the desired final ESC voltage. In an alternate embodiment, the ESC voltage is at least partially applied before striking of the plasma for processing the wafer. By reducing current spikes associated with application of the voltage to the ESC during the presence of the processing plasma, transfer or deposition of particles on the wafer can be reduced.

Method and apparatus for ESC charge control for wafer clamping

A method for etching a differential metal gate structure on a substrate is described. The differential metal gate structure includes a metal gate layer overlying a high dielectric constant (high-k) dielectric layer, wherein the metal gate layer comprises a different thickness at different regions on the substrate. The metal gate layer is patterned by using a plasma etching process, wherein at least one etch step includes forming plasma using a halogen-containing gas and at least one etch step includes forming plasma using an additive gas having as atomic constituents C, H, and F.

Differential metal gate etching process

A particle monitor system that can detect fine particles in a substrate processing apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus has a chamber in which a substrate is housed and subjected to processing, a dry pump that exhausts gas out of the chamber, and a bypass line that communicates the chamber and the dry pump together. The particle monitor system has a laser light oscillator that irradiates laser light toward a space in which the particles may be present, and a laser power measurement device that is disposed on an optical path of the laser light having passed through the space and measures the energy of the laser light.

Particle monitor system and substrate processing apparatus

A gas injection system includes a diffuser to distribute a process gas in a processing chamber. The gas injection system may be utilized in a polysilicon etching system involving corrosive process gases.

Reduced contaminant gas injection system and method of using

A plasma processing method includes a step of preparing a process subject having an organic layer on a surface thereof, and a step of irradiating the process subject with Hplasma to improve plasma resistance of the organic layer.

Plasma processing method

A dry etching method involves plasma etching an organic anti-reflecting coating film through a mask layer made of photoresist and having a predetermined pattern by using an etching gas of CFand O. The method allows an organic anti-reflecting coating film to be etched such that the etched film exhibits a side wall portion having a better shape as compared with that formed by a conventional technique.

Dry etching method

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Rensselaer, NY, United States of America

Takashi Enomoto