The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Aug. 25, 2020

Filed:

Dec. 02, 2016
Applicant:

Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);

Inventors:

Alexei Marakhtanov, Albany, CA (US);

Zhigang Chen, Campbell, CA (US);

John Patrick Holland, San Jose, CA (US);

Assignee:

Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01J 37/32 (2006.01); H01L 21/67 (2006.01); H01L 21/3065 (2006.01); H01L 21/311 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01J 37/32146 (2013.01); H01J 37/32082 (2013.01); H01J 37/32174 (2013.01); H01J 37/32183 (2013.01); H01L 21/3065 (2013.01); H01L 21/31116 (2013.01); H01L 21/67069 (2013.01); H01J 2237/334 (2013.01);
Abstract

A method for slope control of ion energy is described. The method includes receiving a setting indicating that an etch operation is to be performed using a radio frequency (RF) pulse signal. The RF pulse signal includes a first state and a second state. The first state has a higher power level than the second state. The method further includes receiving a pulse slope associated with the RF pulse signal. The pulse slope provides a transition between the first state and the second state. Also, the pulse slope is other than substantially infinite for reducing an amount of ion energy during the etch operation. The method includes determining power levels and timings for achieving the pulse slope and sending the power levels and the timings to an RF generator to generate the RF pulse signal.


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