Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Yukihiro Maegawa

Tomohiro Okumura

Izuru Matsuda

Mitsuo Saitoh

Takayuki Kai

Ichiro Nakayama

Kibatsu Shinohara

Minoru Kanda

Shiniti Matamura

Kenji Sumida

A plasma processing apparatus including a vacuum chamber,

Plasma processing method and apparatus

A plasma processing method includes introducing a gas into a vacuum chamber through a hole of a dielectric tube attached to a metal body fixed to the vacuum chamber while exhausting from the vacuum chamber to keep the vacuum chamber within a specified pressure. High-frequency power with a frequency ranging from 100 kHz to 3 GHz is applied to a plasma source provided so as to face a substrate mounted on a substrate electrode in the vacuum chamber to generate plasma in the vacuum chamber to perform plasma processing of the substrate.

Plasma processing method and apparatus thereof

A plasma processing method for generating plasma in a vacuum chamber and processing a substrate placed on a substrate electrode, the plasma being generated by supplying a high-frequency power having a frequency of 50 MHz to 3 GHz to an antenna provided opposite to the substrate electrode while interior of the vacuum chamber is controlled to a specified pressure by supplying a gas into the vacuum chamber and exhausting the interior of the vacuum chamber, the method includes with a dielectric plate being sandwiched between the antenna and the vacuum chamber and both the antenna and the dielectric plate projecting into the vacuum chamber, controlling plasma distribution on the substrate with an annular and recessed slit provided between the antenna and the vacuum chamber, and processing the substrate in a state where the antenna cover is fixed by making both an inner side face of the slit and the antenna covered with an antenna cover, making a bottom face of the slit covered with a slit cover, supporting the antenna cover by the slit cover, and fixing the slit cover to a wall surface of the vacuum chamber.

The present invention provides a matching circuit which has a wide range in which matching can be achieved and the matched state of which is stabilized with respect to a change in the load state. To an input terminal ( ) of a matching circuit ( ), one terminal of a first variable reactance element ( ) is connected. The other terminal of the first variable reactance element ( ) is connected to a point between a first fixed reactance element ( ) and a second fixed reactance element ( ), which are connected in series. The first fixed reactance element ( ) is grounded, and the second fixed reactance element ( ) is connected to one terminal of a second variable reactance element ( ) and connected to one terminal of a stripline ( ). The other terminal of the second variable reactance element ( ) is grounded, and the other terminal of the stripline ( ) is connected to an output terminal ( ).

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Ibaraki, Japan

Yukihiro Maegawa