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, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 16, 1997
James van Gogh, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for pre-heating a coil used to generate a plasma field in a processing chamber in a semiconductor fabrication system. The coil is pre-heated in the chamber prior to sputter depositing material onto a substrate and workpiece. The coil is pre-heated to a predetermined temperature, which is preferably equal to or greater than the equilibrium temperature attained by the coil during sputter deposition processes. Pre-heating may be effected with a preheating current having a frequency lower than the minimum frequency required to ignite a plasma, or when the processing chamber contains an atmosphere which prevents formation of a plasma. The coil may pre-heated for a predetermined time period.