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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 08, 1994
Filed:
Jan. 09, 1992
Masahide Watanabe, Kofu, JP;
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Ashing or etching is performed in a plasma surface-process apparatus and, e.g., a CO concentration of a discharge gas from the apparatus is monitored by a CO monitor. Since the generated CO concentration is correlated to a surface processing speed, an end point of surface processing can be detected by obtaining a CO concentration at the end point of surface processing in advance. When the state of the apparatus negatively changes, the plasma discharge state is changed, and, e.g., the generated CO concentration is also changed. The state of the apparatus can be obtained by monitoring the CO concentration. The plasma surface-process apparatus prevents the plasma from flowing into an inner chamber of a reaction chamber and allows only radicals generated by plasma discharge to flow into it, so that plasma processing can be effectively performed.