Tokyo Electron Limited

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Tokyo Electron Limi Ted

Neomax Materials Co., Ltd.

Toshihiro Hayami

Chishio Koshimizu

Naoki Matsumoto

Yohei Yamazawa

Akira Koshiishi

Manabu Iwata

Manabu Sato

Hiroki Yamazaki

Masaru Sugimoto

Noriyuki Kobayashi

Hidetoshi Hanaoka

Kunihiko Hinata

Ryuji Ohtani

Kazuo Kibi

Daisuke Yano

Yoshinobu Ohya

Masanobu Honda

Itsuko Sakai

Kaoru Oohashi

Naoyuki Umehara

Kazuya Nagaseki

Shinji Himori

Masashi Saito

Tokuhisa Ohiwa

Shoichiro Matsuyama

Masahide Iwasaki

Yoshinobu Ooya

Etsuji Ito

Takeshi Ohse

Yutaka Matsui

Kengo Kaneko

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Takaaki Nezu

Hiroki Matsumaru

Katsumi Horiguchi

Kazuyoshi Watanabe

Noriaki Imai

Junichi Takahira

Shinichi Komatsu

Yuichi Sasaki

Jun-Ichi Takahira

Jun-Ichi Shimada

Satoshi Maebashi

Yoshikazu Sugiyasu

A plasma processing method includes executing an etching process that includes supplying an etching gas into a process container in which a target substrate is supported on a second electrode serving as a lower electrode, and applying an RF power for plasma generation and an RF power for ion attraction to turn the etching gas into plasma and to subject the target substrate to etching. The etching process includes applying a negative DC voltage to a first electrode serving as an upper electrode during the etching to increase an absolute value of self-bias on the first electrode. The etching process includes releasing DC electron current generated by the negative DC voltage to ground through plasma and a conductive member disposed as a ring around the first electrode, by using a first state where the conductive member is connected to a ground potential portion.

Plasma processing apparatus and method

A plasma etching apparatus includes an upper electrode and a lower electrode, between which plasma of a process gas is generated to perform plasma etching on a wafer W. The apparatus further comprises a cooling ring disposed around the wafer, a correction ring disposed around the cooling ring, and a variable DC power supply directly connected to the correction ring, the DC voltage being preset to provide the correction ring with a negative bias, relative to ground potential, for attracting ions in the plasma and to increase temperature of the correction ring to compensate for a decrease in temperature of a space near the edge of the target substrate due to the cooling ring.

An apparatus includes an upper electrode and a lower electrode for supporting a wafer disposed opposite each other within a process chamber. A first RF power supply configured to apply a first RF power having a relatively higher frequency, and a second RF power supply configured to apply a second RF power having a relatively lower frequency is connected to the lower electrode. A variable DC power supply is connected to the upper electrode. A process gas is supplied into the process chamber to generate plasma of the process gas so as to perform plasma etching.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a first and second electrodes disposed on upper and lower sides and opposite each other within a process container, a first RF power application unit and a DC power supply both connected to the first electrode, and second and third radio frequency power application units both connected to the second electrode. A conductive member is disposed within the process container and grounded to release through plasma a current caused by a DC voltage applied from the DC power supply. The conductive member is supported by a first shield part around the second electrode and laterally protruding therefrom at a position between the mount face of the second electrode and an exhaust plate for the conductive member to be exposed to the plasma. The conductive member is grounded through a conductive internal body of the first shield part.

A plasma processing unit of the present invention includes a processing container whose inner pressure can be reduced, a first electrode arranged in the processing container, a process gas supplying unit that supplies a process gas into the processing container, a high-frequency electric power source that outputs high-frequency electric power having a frequency in a VHF band, a matching unit electrically connected to the high-frequency electric power source and the first electrode for impedance matching, and a transmission line that transmits the high-frequency electric power from the high-frequency electric power source to the matching unit. A substrate to be processed is adapted to be arranged in the processing container. The high-frequency electric power transmitted to the first electrode is adapted to generate plasma in such a manner that the substrate to be processed can undergo a plasma process by means of the plasma. The transmission line has a length shorter than a length wherein a resonance state of a third harmonic wave of the high-frequency electric power may be generated.

Plasma processing unit and high-frequency electric power supplying unit

A plasma processing apparatus includes a processing container, an exhaust unit, an exhaust plate, an RF power application unit connected to a second electrode but not connected to the first electrode and configured to apply an RF power with a single frequency, the second electrode being connected to no power supply that applies an RF power other than the RF power with the single frequency, a DC power supply connected to the first electrode but not connected to the second electrode, the first electrode being connected to no power supply that applies an RF power, and a conductive member within the process container grounded to release through plasma a current caused by the DC voltage, the conductive member supported by the first shield part and laterally protruding therefrom only at a position that is located, in a height-wise direction, between a mount face and the exhaust plate and below a bottom of a focus ring.

In a high-frequency power source, a malfunction is prevented by precisely removing harmonic components or a modulated wave component which develops while producing a plasma, and a proper high frequency power can be impressed on a plasma processing apparatus. The high-frequency power source includes a power monitor constituted of a directional coupler, a mixer, a 100 kHz low-pass filter, a low-frequency detector, and an oscillator. A 100 MHz high-frequency wave including modulated wave components and the like extracted by the directional coupler and 99.9 MHz high-frequency wave oscillated by the oscillator are added by the mixer. An output of the addition is converted by the low-frequency detector into 100 kHz, resulting in detection.

High frequency power source and its control method, and plasma processing apparatus

A plasma processing chamber that enables an amount of attached polymer to be controlled easily with a simple construction. A vesselhouses a semiconductor wafer W. A susceptoris disposed in the vesseland is connected to a lower electrode radio frequency power source. In a plasma processing chamber, RIE and ashing can be carried out on the semiconductor wafer W using plasma produced from processing gases introduced into the vessel. A side wall memberis disposed in the vesseland exposed to the plasma. A potential of the side wall memberis set to either a floating potential or a ground potential in accordance with which of RIE and ashing is carried out.

Plasma processing chamber, potential controlling apparatus, potential controlling method, program for implementing the method, and storage medium storing the program

In a plasma processing apparatus, a member for propagating high frequency from a high frequency power supply and/or to which the high frequency is applied. A power feed rod is electromagnetically shielded between a matching unit and a bottom plate of a chamber by a coaxial cylindrical conductor connected to a ground potential. A surface potential system disposed in an appropriate distance from the power feed rod in radius direction is installed in the cylindrical conductor, and measures in a non-contact state the electrostatic surface potential of the power feed rod through electrostatic capacitance and provides a controller with a surface potential detection signal including surface potential measurement value information. The controller performs a required signal processing or operation processing on the basis of the surface potential detection signal from the surface potential system, thereby obtaining the measurement value of the DC potential on the power feed rod.

Plasma processing apparatus

A structure for a plasma processing chamber which makes it possible to control the potential therein and simplify the construction of the plasma processing chamber. A gas-introducing showerheadis disposed in the plasma processing chamberincluding a containerhaving a process space S for receiving a semiconductor wafer W, and a susceptordisposed in the container, for mounting the received semiconductor wafer W thereon. The susceptoris connected to high-frequency power suppliesand. An electrode supportof the gas-introducing showerheadis electrically grounded. An electrically floating top electrode plateof the gas-introducing showerheadis disposed between the electrode supportand the process space S. The top electrode platehas a surface exposed to the process space S. An insulating filmis formed of a dielectric material and disposed between the electrode supportand the top electrode plate

Structure for plasma processing chamber, plasma processing chamber, plasma processing apparatus, and plasma processing chamber component

A temperature control system and a substrate processing apparatus are provided. The temperature control system for controlling temperatures of one or more members of a substrate processing apparatus includes a circulation system for circulating a first coolant to pass through the inside of each of the members, a heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between the first coolant of the circulation system and a second coolant, and a chiller for supplying the second coolant to the heat exchanger, wherein the circulation system includes a branch line for each of the members passing through the inside thereof, the branch line for each of the members is provided with a heating member for heating the first coolant supplied thereto, and the heat exchanger is installed in a room where the substrate processing apparatus is installed.

Temperature control system and substrate processing apparatus

A substrate mounting table includes a plurality of passageways independently provided therein, a temperature control medium flowing through the passageways, and a gap formed between at least two of the passageways. In a substrate processing method for processing a substrate mounted on the substrate mounting table in a substrate processing apparatus while controlling a temperature thereof, a process is performed on the substrate while controlling the temperature of the substrate by flowing the temperature control medium through each of the passageways. The passageways are respectively provided in a central area of the substrate mounting table and a peripheral area located outside the central area, and the central area and the peripheral area are thermally isolated from each other by evacuating the gap so as to set the gap to a vacuum state.

Substrate mounting table, substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A capacitive coupling plasma processing apparatus includes a process chamber configured to have a vacuum atmosphere, and a process gas supply section configured to supply a process gas into the chamber. In the chamber, a first electrode and a second electrode are disposed opposite each other. An RF power supply is disposed to supply an RF power to the first or second electrode to form an RF electric field within a plasma generation region between the first and second electrodes, so as to turn the process gas into plasma. The target substrate is supported by a support member between the first and second electrodes such that a process target surface thereof faces the second electrode. A conductive functional surface is disposed in a surrounding region around the plasma generation region and grounded to be coupled with the plasma in a sense of DC to expand the plasma.

Capacitive coupling plasma processing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Toshihiro Hayami