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:
Jul. 26, 2022

Filed:

Jun. 25, 2019
Applicant:

Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);

Inventors:

Rongping Wang, Cupertino, CA (US);

Siamak Salimian, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Tom K. Cho, Los Altos, CA (US);

Assignee:

Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/306 (2006.01); C23C 16/00 (2006.01); H01J 37/32 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01J 37/32183 (2013.01); H01J 37/3244 (2013.01); H01J 37/3299 (2013.01); H01J 37/32917 (2013.01); H01J 37/32926 (2013.01); H01J 37/32935 (2013.01); H01J 37/32944 (2013.01); H01J 2237/3341 (2013.01);
Abstract

An RF plasma generator configured to ignite and maintain a plasma from one or more processing gases is disclosed. A switch mode power supply is configured to convert a DC voltage from a DC power source to an RF voltage. A resonance circuit is configured to deliver an amount of power to an ignited plasma from the switch mode power supply. A plasma controller is configured to operate the power supply to apply an RF voltage corresponding to the amount of power to the one or more processing gases through the resonance circuit. The RF voltage increases in amplitude and decreases in frequency until the one or more processing gasses are ignited into a plasma. Responsive to detecting ignition of the plasma, the plasma controller is further configured to continuously adjust the frequency of the switch mode power supply to deliver the amount of power to the ignited plasma. The amount of power is a substantially constant amount of power.


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