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:
Oct. 23, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 19, 1999
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A plasma etching apparatus includes a processing chamber for etch-processing a substrate, a lower electrode located within the processing chamber for holding the substrate on an upper surface thereof by an electrostatic attraction, and an upper electrode located to face the lower electrode. A purge gas introducing port is provided at a side wall of the processing chamber at a position which is between the upper electrode and the lower electrode in height and which opposes to the evacuation port in a plan view in such a manner that the lower electrode is positioned between the evacuation port and the purge gas introducing port in the plan view. A plasma etching method includes the steps of holding the substrate on the lower electrode in such a condition that a surface to be etched of the substrate is faced upwards, then introducing a process gas into the processing chamber, applying a high frequency voltage between the lower electrode and the upper electrode to generate a plasma gas in a low pressure so as to etch the substrate, and thereafter, introducing a purge gas into the process chamber at the time of completion of the processing. At the time of completing the processing, the supplying of the process gas is stopped and it starts to supply the purge gas into the processing chamber, and thereafter, when a predetermined time has elapsed, the application of the high frequency voltage is stopped.