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:
Jul. 30, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 08, 2001
Hideo Kitagawa, Utsunomiya, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A plasma processing apparatus having a vacuum vessel and a supporting means for supporting a processing target in the vacuum vessel, the apparatus comprising means for introducing a gas into a plasma generating space, means for feeding electric energy to the gas in the plasma generating space to generate a plasma, a metal member for forming negative ions which is provided on the downstream side of the plasma generating space in such a way that it comes into contact with particles of the plasma, and means for feeding the negative ions to the processing target. Utilizing the electric charge exchange reaction between plasma particles and metal surfaces, negative ions can be formed continuously and in a high density and also the negative ions can be made incident on a processing target to make ashing, etching or cleaning of the processing target to remove unwanted matter therefrom, so that a high processing rate and less charge-up damage can be achieved.