Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Ibis Technology Corporation

Gtat Corporation

William Leavitt

Shengwu Chang

Steven Richards

Christopher H Berry

Michael St Peter

Kristen Rounds

Frank Sinclair

Julian G Blake

Geoffrey Ryding

Theodore H Smick

Richard S Muka

Thomas A Doyon

David S Holbrook

Joseph Daniel Gillespie

Paul Eide

William H Park

Drew Arnold

Joe Olson

Matt Mosher

David Sabo

Daniel Brosnan

Jeff Burgess

Provided herein are approaches for improving ion beam extraction stability and ion beam current for an ion extraction system. In one approach, a source housing assembly may include a source housing surrounding an ion source including an arc chamber, the source housing having an extraction aperture plate mounted at a proximal end thereof. The source housing assembly further includes a vacuum liner disposed within an interior of the source housing to form a barrier around a set of vacuum pumping apertures. As configured, openings in the source housing assembly, other than an opening in the extraction aperture plate, are enclosed by the extraction aperture plate and the vacuum liner, thus ensuring appendix arcs or extraneous ions produced outside the arc chamber remain within the source housing. Just those ions produced within the arc chamber exit the source housing through the opening of the extraction aperture plate.

Source housing assembly for controlling ion beam extraction stability and ion beam current

Provided herein are approaches for controlling an ion beam within an accelerator/decelerator. In an exemplary approach, an ion implantation system includes an ion source for generating an ion beam, and a terminal suppression electrode coupled to a terminal, wherein the terminal suppression electrode is configured to conduct the ion beam through an aperture of the terminal suppression electrode and to apply a first potential to the ion beam from a first voltage supply. The system further includes a lens coupled to the terminal and disposed adjacent the terminal suppression electrode, wherein the lens is configured to conduct the ion beam through an aperture of the lens and to apply a second potential to the ion beam from a second voltage supply. In an exemplary approach, the lens is electrically insulated from the terminal suppression electrode and independently driven, thus allowing for an increased beam current operation range.

Controlling an ion beam in a wide beam current operation range

An apparatus to control an ion beam for treating a substrate. The apparatus may include a fixed electrode configured to conduct the ion beam through a fixed electrode aperture and to apply a fixed electrode potential to the ion beam, a ground electrode assembly disposed downstream of the fixed electrode. The ground electrode assembly may include a base and a ground electrode disposed adjacent the fixed electrode and configured to conduct the ion beam through a ground electrode aperture, the ground electrode being reversibly movable along a first axis with respect to the fixed electrode between a first position and a second position, wherein a beam current of the ion beam at the substrate varies when the ground electrode moves between the first position and second position.

Apparatus and method to control ion beam current

An ion implanter has an implant wheel with a plurality of wafer carriers distributed about a periphery of the wheel. Each wafer carrier has a heat sink for removing heat from a wafer on the carrier during the implant process by thermal contact between the wafer and the heat sink. The wafer carriers have wafer retaining fences formed as cylindrical rollers with axes in the respective wafer support planes of the wafer carriers. The cylindrical surfaces of the rollers provide wafer abutment surfaces which can move transversely to the wafer support surfaces so that no transverse loading is applied by the fences to wafer edges as the wafer is pushed against the heat sink by centrifugal force. The wafer support surfaces comprise layers of elastomeric material and the movable abutment surfaces of the fences allow even thermal coupling with the heat sink over the whole area of the wafer.

Ion implantation apparatus

The present invention provides a rotating shaft that can extend between two regions having different ambient pressures. The rotating shaft can include a rotatable hollow outer shell that is coupled to a proximal portion of an inner shaft with a limited number of contact points. A plurality of thermal breaks disposed between the inner shaft and the hollow outer shell impede heat transfer between these two components. A rotary seal coupled to the distal portion of the inner shaft preserves the pressure differential between the two regions. Further, a heat sink removes heat transferred to the seal to ensure that the temperature of the seal remains within a range suitable for its operation. The rotating shaft of the invention can be utilized, for example, in an ion implantation system by the coupling of the outer shell to a wafer holder to position and orient a wafer in a path of an ion beam.

Shaft cooling mechanisms

The present invention provides a beam stop for use in an ion implantation system that includes a base formed of a thermally conductive material, and a heat transfer layer formed of a semi-elastic material that is disposed on a surface of the base. The beam stop further includes one or more tiles, each formed of a thermally conductive refractory material, that are disposed on the semi-elastic layer so as to face an ion beam in the implantation system. The heat transfer layer transfers heat generated in the tile in response to ion beam impact to the base. The base in turn can be coupled to a heat sink to remove heat from the base. The thickness and the thermal conductivity of the base, and those of the heat transfer layer and the tile are chosen so as to ensure uniform expansion of the base and the tile when the beam stop is heated by ion beam impact.

Beam stop for use in an ion implantation system

Wafer-holding structures formed from thermosetting resins are disclosed for use in semiconductor processing including, for example, SIMOX wafer processing. In one embodiment a pin is disclosed that is adapted to receive a wafer edge, and is coupled with a wafer holder assembly. The pin can be filled with a conductive material to provide an electrical pathway between the wafer and the wafer holder assembly, which can be coupled to a ground. This arrangement provides a conductive path for inhibiting electrical discharges from the wafer during the ion implantation process. The pin exhibits thermal isolation characteristics and sufficient hardness so as to not effect localized thermal dissipation of the wafer, yet is sufficiently soft so as to not mark or otherwise damage the wafer.

Thermosetting resin wafer-holding pin

The present invention provides a heating assembly that includes a thermally conductive, lamp-mounting block manufactured from aluminum or a similar material, which can be machined as a single-piece (e.g., unibody) block. The unibody block includes one or more networks of inner passageways bored or otherwise machined within the block for transporting one or more cooling fluids. The mounting block can also have a reflective coating on one or more of its surfaces that face the lamps to efficiently reflect heat and/or light generated by the lamps onto a desired surface, for example, a semiconductor wafer. Thermal isolation devices, e.g., pads, provide for both physical mounting of the heating lamps to the mounting block and also provide thermal isolation between the heating lamp and its electrical connections are also disclosed to protecting heat-sensitive elements of the heating assembly such as seals.

Wafer heating devices for use in ion implantation systems

A system for correcting eccentricity and rotational error of a substantially circular workpiece, in which the workpiece is moved to a workstation, using a translating device. The rotational position and position of the workpiece center is determined. There is a rotatable member at the workstation, having a home position and a center. The rotatable member is pre-rotated from its home position an amount sufficient to correct workpiece rotational error. The translating device is caused to place the workpiece on the rotatable member such that the workpiece center is at a known position relative to the center of the rotatable member, to correct eccentricity. The rotatable member is then rotated back to its home position, to correct rotational error.

Growing community of inventors

Haverhill, MA, United States of America

William Leavitt