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:
Nov. 06, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 12, 1999
Jin-Liang Chen, Cupertino, CA (US);
Linuan Chen, San Jose, CA (US);
Advanced Ion Beam Technology, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for ion beam neutralization is disclosed in this invention. The apparatus is a plasma flood source with an arc discharge chamber enclosed in a source housing with sufficient cooling so that the housing temperature is near room temperature. Arc discharge between a filament and the arc chamber ionizes the bleeding gas atoms or molecules in the arc chamber and produces plasma. The low energy electrons together with ions in the plasma drift out of the arc chamber and neutralize the passing ion beam. The sufficiently cooled source housing prevents radiation to the processed wafers, reduces metal particle concentration in the plasma and therefore metal contamination on the wafers, and keeps beamline pressure low while more electrons are extracted from the flood source through the apertures with larger area.