Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Xue-Yu Qian

Arthur H Sato

Gerald Z Yin

Zhi-wen Sun

Shaoher X Pan

Michael N Grimbergen

Arthur Y Chen

Jeffrey D Chinn

Xikun Wang

Valentin N Todorov

Ming-Hsun Yang

Weinan Jiang

Patrick Leahey

Patty Hui-ing Tsai

Ming-Hsun Kuo

Dale A Olson

John Patrick Holland

Yan Ye

Stephen Moffatt

Peter K Loewenhardt

Hiroyuki Ito

David S Mui

Dragan Valentin Podlesnik

Robert J Steger

Jonathan David Mohn

David S L Mui

Graham W Hills

Brian K Hatcher

Robert E Ryan

Robert J Mitchell

Maocheng Li

Waiching Chow

Yoshi Tanase

A process chamber capable of processing a substrate and monitoring a process conducted on the substrate , comprises a support , a gas inlet, a gas energizer, an exhaust , and a wall having a recess that is sized to reduce the deposition of process residues therein. A process monitoring system may be used to monitoring a process that may be conducted on a substrate in the process chamber through the recess in the wall

Reducing deposition of process residues on a surface in a chamber

A process chamber for processing a substrate and monitoring the process conducted on the substrate comprises a support a gas distributor, and an exhaust The process chamber has a wall which may comprise a window or radiation transmitting portion that allows light to be transmitted therethrough. Residue deposits onto the window during processing of the substrate may be reduced. In one version, the window comprises a transparent plate covered by an overlying mask that has at least one aperture extending through the mask so that light can be transmitted through the aperture and the transparent plate

Chamber having process monitoring window

A process for etching a substrate in an etching chamber , and simultaneously cleaning a thin, non-homogeneous, etch residue deposited on the surfaces of the walls and components of the etching chamber . In the etching step, process gas comprising etchant gas is used to etch a substrate in the etching chamber thereby depositing etch residue inside the chamber . Cleaning gas is added to the process gas for a sufficient time and in a volumetric flow ratio that is sufficiently high, to react with and remove substantially all the etch residue deposited by the process gas. The present method advantageously cleans the etch residue in the chamber , during the etching process, and without use of separate cleaning, conditioning, and seasoning process steps.

Self-cleaning etch process

The invention is embodied in an antenna for radiating RF power supplied by an RF source into a vacuum chamber, the antenna including plural concentrically spiral conductors, each having a first end located in a first common region and a second end located in a second common region, and each being wound about a common axis passing through both regions, the regions being concentric with the axis, the conductors being substantially the same length, substantially the same shape, and substantially evenly spaced with respect to each other about the common axis.

Plasma reactor with coil antenna of concentrically spiral conductors with ends in common regions

The invention provides a system and a method for dynamic RF inductive and capacitive coupling control to improve plasma substrate processing, as well as for achieving contamination and defect reduction. A plasma reactor includes a substrate support disposed in a chamber. An RF coil is disposed adjacent the chamber for inductively coupling RF energy into the chamber. An electrode is disposed adjacent the chamber and has a voltage for capacitively coupling energy into the chamber. The electrode is spaced from the substrate support and the RF coil. An electrode adjusting member is coupled with the electrode for dynamically adjusting the voltage in the electrode to vary the capacitive coupling for improved plasma ignition and plasma stability. A Faraday shield may be placed between the RF coil and the plasma process region in the chamber to suppress capacitive coupling of the RF coil. Sensors may be provided to monitor the amounts of inductive coupling and capacitive coupling to provide feedback to a controller which is used to adjust the inductive coupling and capacitive coupling in real time to stabilize the plasma and achieve improved processing.

Plasma reactor with dynamic RF inductive and capacitive coupling control

A process chamber for processing a substrate and monitoring the process conducted on the substrate , comprises a support , a gas distributor, and an exhaust . The process chamber has a wall comprising a window that allows light to be transmitted therethrough and reduces deposition of process residue from the process gas onto the window during processing of the substrate . In one version, the window comprises a transparent plate covered by an overlying mask that has at least one aperture extending through the mask so that light can be transmitted through the aperture and the transparent plate

Chamber having improved process monitoring window

An apparatus and process for treating and conditioning an etching chamber , and cleaning a thin, non-homogeneous, etch residue on the walls and components of the etching chamber . In the etching step, a substrate is etched in the etching chamber to deposit a thin etch residue layer on the surfaces of the walls and components in the chamber. In the cleaning step, cleaning gas is introduced into a remote chamber adjacent to the etching chamber , and microwave or RF energy is applied inside the remote chamber to form an activated cleaning gas. A short burst of activated cleaning gas at a high flow rate is introduced into the etching chamber to clean the etch residue on the walls and components of the etching chamber. The method is particularly useful for cleaning etch residue that is chemically adhered to ceramic surfaces in the chamber, for example surfaces comprising aluminum nitride, boron carbide, boron nitride, diamond, silicon oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, titanium oxide, titanium carbide, yttrium oxide, zirconium oxide, or mixtures thereof.

Treatment of etching chambers using activated cleaning gas

The invention is embodied in a coil antenna for radiating RF power supplied by an RF source into a vacuum chamber, the coil antenna including plural helical conductors each having a first end and a second end, the first ends being adapted for connection to a first common RF potential, the second ends being adapted for connection to a second common RF potential, each of the plural conductors being wound about a common axis of helical symmetry, each of the second ends being spaced substantially equally from the axis and from each other.

Plasma reactor with antenna of coil conductors of concentric helices offset along the axis of symmetry

Plasma reactor with coil antenna of interleaved conductors

Plasma reactor with coil antenna of plural helical conductors with equally spaced ends

The invention is embodied in a coil antenna for radiating RF power supplied by an RF source into a vacuum chamber of an inductively coupled plasma reactor which processes a semiconductor wafer in the vacuum chamber, the reactor having a gas supply inlet for supplying processing gases into the vacuum chamber, the coil antenna including plural concentric spiral conductive windings, each of the windings having an interior end near an apex of a spiral of the winding and an outer end at a periphery of the spiral of the winding, and a common terminal connected to the interior ends of the plural concentric spiral windings, the RF power source being connected across the terminal and the outer end of each one of the windings.

Inductively coupled plasma reactor with symmetrical parallel multiple coils having a common RF terminal

A process for etching a substrate 25 in an etching chamber 30, and simultaneously cleaning a thin, non-homogeneous, etch residue deposited on the surfaces of the walls 45 and components of the etching chamber 30. In the etching step, process gas comprising etchant gas is used to etch a substrate 25 in the etching chamber 30 thereby depositing etch residue inside the chamber 30. Cleaning gas is added to the process gas for a sufficient time and in a volumetric flow ratio that is sufficiently high, to react with and remove substantially all the etch residue deposited by the process gas. The present method advantageously cleans the etch residue in the chamber 30, during the etching process, and without use of separate cleaning, conditioning, and seasoning process steps.

An Electron flood apparatus for neutralizing positive charge build-up on substrate during implantation of ions in a substrate by ion beam implantation apparatus. The electron flood apparatus comprises a tube for axially receiving and passing an ion beam to a substrate, an opening in a sidewall of the tube, a plasma chamber having an exit aperture in communication with said opening of said tube, a supply of inert gas to said plasma chamber, a high frequency power generator, and means to deliver high frequency power from said generator to maintain a plasma in said chamber to produce low energy electrons, whereby a flux of said low energy electrons emerges from said chamber through said exit aperture into said tube to merge with the ion beam.

Electron flood apparatus for neutralizing charge build-up on a substrate

An inductively coupled plasma reactor for processing a substrate has an inductively coupled coil antenna including plural inductive antenna loops which are electrically separated from one another and independently connected to separately controllable plasma source RF power supplies. The RF power level in each independent antenna loop is separately programmed and instantly changeable to provide a perfectly uniform plasma ion density distribution across the entire substrate surface under a large range of plasma processing conditions, such as different process gases or gas mixtures. In a preferred embodiment, there are as many separately controllable RF power supplies as there are independent antenna loops, and all the separately controllable power supplies receive their RF power from a commonly shared RF generator.

Inductively coupled plasma reactor with an inductive coil antenna having

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Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Xue-Yu Qian