Hitachi, Ltd.

Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Yamanashi Limited

Hitachi Tokyo Electronics Co., Ltd.

Yoshikazu Ito

Shigeki Tozawa

Shunichi Iimuro

Kazushi Tomita

Eiichi Nishimura

Masayuki Kojima

Yutaka Miura

Masashi Arasawa

Akira Nozawa

Hiromitsu Matsuo

Motohiro Hirano

Kazuhsi Tomita

A parallel-plate plasma etching apparatus includes a susceptor electrode and a shower electrode which are arranged in a process chamber. A semiconductor wafer is placed on the susceptor electrode. A shower region defined by a plurality of process gas supply holes is formed in the shower electrode. The shower electrode is cooled by a cooling block and causes an effective electrode portion of the shower electrode to have a temperature gradient such that a temperature at the central portion of the effective electrode portion is lower than a temperature at the peripheral portion of the effective electrode portion. The diameter of the shower region is selected to be smaller than the diameter of the wafer by 5 to 25% such that degradation of planar uniformity of a degree of etching anisotropy on the wafer caused by the temperature gradient of the effective electrode portion is compensated for. The diameter of the effective electrode portion is selected to be larger than the size of a wafer by 5 to 35% such that a taper angle of a side wall to be etched formed by etching is set to be 85.degree. to 90.degree..

Anisotropic etching method and apparatus

The present invention provides a plasma etching system, comprising a process chamber enclosing a plasma, means for evacuating said process chamber, a chuck electrode for supporting a substrate, a shower electrode positioned to face said chuck electrode and provided with a large number of small holes, a power source for applying a plasma voltage between the chuck electrode and said shower electrode, gas supply means communicating with said small holes of the shower electrode for supplying a plasma-forming gas into the process chamber through the small holes, and means for controlling said gas supply means such that said plasma-forming gas flows through said small holes at a mass flow rate of at least 620 kg/m.sup.2 /hr.

Plasma etching system and plasma etching method

Plasma etching system

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Yamanashi, Japan

Yoshikazu Ito