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. 03, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2000
Kenneth S. Collins, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael Rice, Pleasanton, CA (US);
John Trow, San Jose, CA (US);
Douglas Buchberger, Tracy, CA (US);
Craig A. Roderick, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention is embodied in an inductively coupled RF plasma reactor including a reactor chamber enclosure defining a plasma reactor chamber and a support for holding a workpiece inside the chamber, a non-planar inductive antenna adjacent the reactor chamber enclosure, the non-planar inductive antenna including inductive elements spatially distributed in a non-planar relative to a plane of the workpiece to compensate for a null in an RF inductive pattern of the antenna, and a plasma source RF power supply coupled to the non-planar inductive antenna. The planar inductive antenna may be symmetrical or non-symmetrical, although it preferably includes a solenoid winding such as a vertical stack of conductive windings. In a preferred embodiment, the windings are at a minimum radial distance from the axis of symmetry while in an alternative embodiment the windings are at a radial distance from the axis of symmetry which is a substantial fraction of a radius of the chamber.