Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Limi Ted

Toyko Electron Limited

Yohei Yamazawa

Chishio Koshimizu

Masashi Saito

Naoki Matsumoto

Manabu Iwata

Jun Yamawaku

Akira Koshiishi

Noriyuki Kobayashi

Masaru Sugimoto

Kunihiko Hinata

Ryuji Ohtani

Kazuo Kibi

Daisuke Yano

Kazuki Denpoh

Manabu Sato

Hidetoshi Hanaoka

Toshihiro Hayami

Hiroki Yamazaki

Merritt Funk

Barton Lane

Chelsea Dubose

Justin Moses

Yoshinobu Ohya

Naohiko Okunishi

Michael Hummel

Hitoshi Kato

Alok Ranjan

Tatsuo Matsudo

Shigehiro Miura

Akitaka Shimizu

Asao Yamashita

Michiko Nakaya

Keigo Toyoda

Takehisa Saito

Toshiki Nakajima

Mayo Uda

Tsutomu Higashiura

Takafumi Kimura

Fumihiko Higuchi

Nobuhiro Iwama

Sumie Segawa

DongSheng Zhang

Norikazu Murakami

Masanobu Honda

Takeshi Kobayashi

Hachishiro Iizuka

Hiroshi Nagaike

Mitsuhiro Tachibana

Masahide Iwasaki

Yoshinobu Ooya

Noriaki Imai

Yoshihito Ookawa

Hironobu Misawa

Hidehito Soeta

Atsuki Furuya

A radio frequency (RF) system including: a first conductive covering surface, a portion of the first conductive covering surface including a portion of the first outer wall of a first RF device; a second conductive covering surface aligned to the first conductive covering surface, the second conductive covering surface being disposed around the insulating hole; an insulating hole for an RF center conductor extending through the first conductive covering surface and the second conductive covering surface, the first conductive covering surface and the second conductive covering surface being disposed around the insulating hole; a cavity bounded by the first conductive covering surface and the second conductive covering surface, the cavity being an insulating region; and an RF signal pickup disposed within the cavity.

Radio frequency (RF) system with embedded RF signal pickups

A radio frequency sensor assembly includes a sensor casing disposed around a central hole, the sensor casing including a first conductive cover and a second conductive cover. The assembly includes a cavity disposed around the central hole and includes a dielectric material, the cavity being bounded by a first major outer surface and a second major outer surface along a radial direction from a center of the central hole, where the first conductive cover is electrically coupled to the second conductive cover through a coupling region beyond the second major outer surface of the cavity, and electrically insulated from the second conductive cover by the cavity and the central hole. The assembly includes a current sensor electrically insulated from the sensor casing and including a current pickup disposed symmetrically around the central hole, the current pickup being disposed within the cavity and being insulated from the sensor casing.

RF voltage and current (V-I) sensors and measurement methods

There is provided a filter circuit provided in a plasma processing device for processing a substrate using plasma generated using power of a first frequency of 4 MHz or more and power of a second frequency of 100 Hz or more and less than 4 MHz. The filter circuit comprises: a first filter provided in a wiring between a conductive member provided in the plasma processing device and a power supply configured to supply power of a third frequency of less than 100 Hz or control power which is direct-current (DC) power, to the conductive member; and a second filter provided in a wiring between the first filter and the power supply.

Filter circuit

A plasma processing apparatus includes an antenna configured to generate plasma of a processing gas in a chamber. The antenna includes: an inner coil provided around the gas supply unit to surround a gas supply unit; and an outer coil provided around the gas supply unit and the inner coil to surround them. The outer coil is configured such that both ends of a wire forming the outer coil are opened; power is supplied from a power supply unit to a central point of the wire; the vicinity of the central point of the wire is grounded; and the outer coil resonates at a wavelength that is a half of a wavelength of the high frequency power. The inner coil is configured such that both ends of a wire forming the inner coil are connected through a capacitor and the inner coil is inductively coupled with the inner coil.

Plasma processing apparatus

A radio frequency (RF) system includes a RF power source configured to power a load with an RF signal; an RF pipe including an inner conductor and an outer conductor connected to ground coupling the RF power source to the load; and a current sensor aligned to a central axis of the RF pipe carrying the RF signal. A sensor casing is disposed around the RF pipe, where the sensor casing includes a conductive material connected to the outer conductor of the RF pipe. A gallery is disposed within the sensor casing and outside the outer conductor of the RF pipe, where the current sensor is disposed in the gallery. A slit in the outer conductor of the RF pipe exposes the current sensor to a magnetic field due to the current of the RF signal in the inner conductor of the RF pipe.

In accordance with an embodiment, a measurement system includes a sensor circuit configured to provide a voltage sense signal proportional to an electric field sensed by the RF sensor and a current sense signal proportional to a magnetic field sensed by the RF sensor; an analysis circuit comprising a frequency selective demodulator circuit configured to: demodulate the voltage sense signal into a first set of analog demodulated signals according to a set of demodulation frequencies, demodulate the current sense signal into a second set of analog demodulated signals according to the set of demodulation frequencies, and determine a phase shift between the voltage sense signal and the current sense signal for at least one frequency of the set of demodulation frequencies; and analog-to-digital converters configured to receive the first and second sets of analog demodulated signals.

RF measurement system and method

A plasma processing apparatus includes at least one asymmetry member that causes a non-uniformity of plasma density around the high frequency electrode; and a plasma density distribution controller that is arranged depending on arrangement of the at least one asymmetry member to suppress the non-uniformity of plasma density around the high frequency electrode in the azimuthal direction. The plasma density distribution controller includes a first conductor which has first and second surfaces facing opposite directions to each other and is electrically connected with the rear surface of the high frequency electrode with respect to the first high frequency power; and a second conductor which includes a first connecting portion(s) electrically connected with a portion of the second surface of the first conductor and a second connecting portion electrically connected with a conductive grounding member electrically grounded around the high frequency electrode with respect to the first high frequency power.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber, a high frequency power supply and a load variation stabilization circuit. The high frequency power supply is configured to supply a high frequency power to the processing chamber and generate plasma inside the processing chamber. The load variation stabilization circuit is connected in parallel with the processing chamber at a connection portion provided between the high frequency power supply and the processing chamber. The load variation stabilization circuit is configured to suppress variation in a load impedance when viewing a downstream side from the connection portion.

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 processing apparatus includes a processing chamber including a dielectric window; a coil shaped RF antenna provided outside the dielectric window; a substrate supporting unit, provided in the processing chamber, for mounting thereon a target substrate to be processed; a processing gas supply unit for supplying a desired processing gas to the processing chamber to perform a desired plasma process on the target substrate; and an RF power supply unit for supplying an RF power to the RF antenna to generate a plasma of the processing gas by an inductive coupling in the processing chamber. The apparatus further includes a floating coil electrically floated and arranged at a position outside the processing chamber where the floating coil is to be coupled with the RF antenna by an electromagnetic induction; and a capacitor provided in a loop of the floating coil.

Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

A capacitively-coupled plasma processing apparatus includes: at least one chamber body providing chambers separated from each other; upper electrodes respectively installed in upper spaces within the chambers; lower electrodes respectively installed in lower spaces within the chambers; a high frequency power supply; a transformer including a primary coil electrically connected to the high frequency power supply, and secondary coils each of which coils having a first end and a second end; first condensers respectively connected between each of the first ends of the secondary coils and the upper electrodes; and second condensers respectively connected between each of the second ends of the secondary coils and the lower electrodes. The primary coil extends around a central axis. The secondary coils are configured to be coaxially disposed with respect to the primary coil. A self-inductance of each of the secondary coils is smaller than that of the primary coil.

A capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus includes: a chamber body configured to provide a chamber; first and second electrodes installed such that an internal space of the chamber is defined between the first and second electrodes; a high frequency power supply; a matcher for impedance matching connected to the high frequency power supply; a transformer including a primary coil coupled to the high frequency power supply via the matcher, first and second secondary coils; and at least one impedance adjusting circuit having a variable impedance, and installed in at least one of a first serial circuit between the first electrode and a ground connected to the other end of the first secondary coil, and a second serial circuit between the second electrode and a ground connected to the other end of the second secondary coil.

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.

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Yohei Yamazawa