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:
Sep. 12, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 12, 1998
Jason Smolanoff, Jefferson Valley, NY (US);
Doug Caldwell, McKinney, TX (US);
Jim Zibrida, Glendale, AZ (US);
Bruce Gittleman, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Thomas J Licata, St. Mesa, AZ (US);
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An ionized physical vapor deposition method and apparatus are provided which employs a magnetron magnetic field produced by cathode magnet structure behind a sputtering target to produce a main sputtering plasma, and an RF inductively coupled field produced by an RF coil outside of and surrounding the vacuum of the chamber to produce a secondary plasma in the chamber between the target and a substrate to ionize sputtered material passing from the target to the substrate so that the sputtered material can be electrically or magnetically steered to arrive at the substrate at right angles. A circumferentially interrupted shield or shield structure in the chamber protects the window from material deposits. A low pass LC filter circuit allows the shield to float relative to the RF voltage but to dissipate DC potential on the shield. Advantages provided are that loss of electrons and ions from the secondary plasma is prevented, preserving plasma density and providing high ionization fraction of the sputtered material arriving at the substrate.