Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.

Aes Global Holdings Pte Ltd.

Victor Brouk

Daniel Carter

Daniel John Hoffman

Randy L Heckman

Karen Peterson

Randy Grilley

Kevin P Fairbairn

Denis M Shaw

Jeff Roberg

Dmitri Kovalevskii

William J Hattel

Randy Heckman

Systems and methods for plasma processing are disclosed. An exemplary system may include a plasma processing chamber including a source to produce a plasma in the processing chamber and at least two bias electrodes arranged within the plasma processing chamber to control plasma sheaths proximate to the bias electrodes. A chuck is disposed to support a substrate, and a source generator is coupled to the plasma electrode. At least one bias supply is coupled to the at least two bias electrodes, and a controller is included to control the at least one bias supply to control the plasma sheath(s) proximate to the bias electrodes.

System, method, and apparatus for controlling ion energy distribution in plasma processing systems

An apparatus and method to produce a waveform. The apparatus includes a first node to couple to a substrate support and a power supply coupled to a second node wherein the power supply is configured to provide a DC voltage to set an ion-energy at a surface of the substrate. The apparatus also includes a first switch that couples the second node to the first node, and responsive to the first switch being closed, a first voltage is applied at the first node. A second switch of the power supply couples a third node to the first node, and responsive to the second switch being closed, a second voltage is applied at the first node to effectuate a negative voltage at the surface of the substrate.

Apparatus to control ion energy

Systems and methods for plasma processing are disclosed. An exemplary system may include a plasma processing chamber comprising a source to produce a plasma in the processing chamber and at least two bias electrodes arranged within the plasma processing chamber to control plasma sheaths proximate to the bias electrodes. A chuck is disposed to support a substrate, and a source generator is coupled to the plasma electrode. At least one bias supply is coupled to the at least two bias electrodes, and a controller is included to control the at least one bias supply to control the plasma sheaths proximate to the bias electrodes.

Spatial control of plasma processing environments

An apparatus and method to produce a waveform. The apparatus includes a first node, at least one switch that couples a second node to the first node, and responsive to the at least one switch being closed, a peak voltage is produced at the first node before a voltage at the first node drops by a voltage step. A power supply is coupled to the first node to produce, after the voltage step, a ramped voltage at the first node.

Apparatus to control a waveform

Systems, methods and apparatus for applying a periodic voltage function are disclosed. An exemplary method comprises applying a modified periodic voltage function to an electrical node and monitoring the modified periodic voltage function over multiple cycles to monitor a relationship to represent a status of a plasma process or the plasma processing chamber, where Irepresents a controllable ion compensation current, D is a unitless value, represents a portion of the modified periodic voltage function that includes a negative voltage ramp, and Cis an effective capacitance including a capacitance of a substrate support.

Systems and methods for monitoring faults, anomalies, and other characteristics of a switched mode ion energy distribution system

An apparatus and method to produce a waveform. The apparatus includes a first node, a first power supply coupled to a second node, a first switch that couples the second node to the first node, and responsive to the first switch being closed, a peak voltage is applied at the first node. The apparatus also includes a second switch that couples a third node to the first node, and responsive to the second switch being closed, a voltage step is applied at the first node. In addition, a second power supply is coupled to the first node to produce a ramped voltage at the first node.

Apparatus with switches to produce a waveform

Spatial monitoring and control of plasma processing environments

Systems, methods and apparatus for regulating ion energies in a plasma chamber and chucking a substrate to a substrate support are disclosed. An exemplary method includes placing a substrate in a plasma chamber, forming a plasma in the plasma chamber, controllably switching power to the substrate so as to apply a periodic voltage function (or a modified periodic voltage function) to the substrate, and modulating, over multiple cycles of the periodic voltage function, the periodic voltage function responsive to a defined distribution of energies of ions at the surface of the substrate so as to effectuate the defined distribution of ion energies on a time-averaged basis.

An impedance matching system includes an impedance matching network coupled between an alternating current (AC) generator and electrodes of a plasma chamber. The AC generator is configured to generate a multi-level pulse signal of cyclically recurring pulse intervals with differing amplitude levels. A controller or other device identifies each recurring pulse interval, and for each pulse interval, determines an impedance mis-match level between the AC generator and the electrodes, adjusts a configuration of the impedance matching network according to the determined impedance mis-match level, and stores information associated with the adjusted configuration. When an ensuing pulse interval occurs, the controller obtains the stored information from memory, adjusts the configuration of the impedance matching network according to the stored information, determines another impedance mis-match level between the AC generator and the electrodes, and adjusts the configuration of the impedance matching network to iteratively reduce the impedance mismatch level.

Impedance matching system and method of operating the same

Method of controlling the switched mode ion energy distribution system

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for reducing a DC bias on a substrate surface in a plasma processing chamber due to cross coupling of RF power to an electrode coupled to the substrate. This is brought about via tuning of a resonant circuit coupled between the substrate and ground based on indirect measurements of harmonics of the RF field level at a surface of the substrate. The resulting reduction in DC bias allows a lower ion energy than possible without this resonant circuit and tuning thereof.

Systems, methods, and apparatus for minimizing cross coupled wafer surface potentials

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for capacitively coupling energy into a plasma to ignite and sustain the plasma within a remote plasma source. The power is provided by a first electrode that at least partially surrounds or is surrounded by a second electrode. The second electrode can be grounded or floating. First and second dielectric components can be arranged to separate one or both of the electrodes from the plasma and thereby DC isolate the plasma from one or both of the electrodes.

Growing community of inventors

Fort Collins, CO, United States of America

Victor Brouk