Veeco Instruments Inc.

Vsevolod Zelenkov

John E Keem

Mark Krivoruchko

David Matthew Burtner

Daniel E Siegfried

Valery Alexeyev

Scott A Townsend

Richard Blacker

Valery V Alekseev

Shielding associated with an ion source, such as an anode layer source, reduces the amount and/or concentration of sputtered contaminants impinging and remaining on the surface of a target substrate. While passing the ion beam through to the target substrate, shielding can reduce the total amount of sputtered contaminants impinging the substrate before, during, and/or after passage of the substrate through the envelope of the etching beam. Particularly, a shield configuration that blocks the contaminants from impinging the substrate after the substrate passes through the etching beam (i.e., outside of the envelope of the etching beam) yields a higher quality substrate with reduced substrate contamination.

Sputtered contamination shielding for an ion source

An ion source design and manufacturing techniques allows longitudinal cathode expansion along the length of the anode layer source (ALS). Cathode covers are used to secure the cathode plates to the source body assembly of an ion source. The cathode covers allow the cathode plate to expand along the longitudinal axis of the ion source, thereby relieving the stress introduced by differential thermal expansion. In addition, the cathode cover configuration allows for less expensive cathode plates, including modular cathode plates. Such plates can be adjusted relative to the cathode-cathode gap to prolong the life of a given cathode plate and maintain source performance requirements. A cathode plate in a linear section of an ion source has symmetrical edges and can, therefore, be flipped over to exchange the first (worn) cathode edge with the second (unworn) cathode edge.

Longitudinal cathode expansion in an ion source

A modular ion source design relies on relatively short modular anode layer source (ALS) components, which can be coupled together to form a longer ALS. For long ion sources, these shorter modular components allow for easier manufacturing and further result in a final assembly having better precision (e.g., a uniform gap dimensions along the longitudinal axis of the ion source). Modular components may be designed to have common characteristics so as to allow use of these components in ion sources of varying sizes. A modular gas distribution system uniformly distributes a working gas to the ionization region of the module ion source. For each gas distribution module, gas distribution channels and baffles are laid out relative to the module joints to prevent gas leakage. Furthermore, gas manifolds and supply channels are used to bridge module joints while uniformly distributing the working gas to the ALS.

Modular uniform gas distribution system in an ion source

A closed loop exit hole is formed in a magnetically permeable end wall () of an enclosure () of a closed electron drift ion source. Parts of this end wall separated by the exit hole serve as pole pieces (and) of the magnetic system and define the first pole gap. The magnetic system includes pole pieces (and), which define the second pole gap made in the form of a closed loop exit hole and arranged along the direction of ion emission. Magnetomotive force sources (and) are located in space between two groups of magnetic terminals. The ratio of width of each pole gap and distance between pole pieces of the first (and) and second (and) magnetic gaps along the direction of ion emission is not less than 0.05. The invention allows the intensity of the generated ion beam and the energy of ions to be increased, and this is provided by the homogeneous distribution of ion current density across the ion beam section.

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Moscow, Russia

Vsevolod Zelenkov