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:
Apr. 13, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 29, 2001
John Stephen Drewery, Alameda, CA (US);
Glyn Reynolds, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Derrek Andrew Russell, Scottsdale, AZ (US);
Jozef Brcka, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Mirko Vukovic, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Michael James Grapperhaus, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Frank Michael Cerio, Jr., Phoenix, AZ (US);
Bruce David Gittleman, Scottsdale, AZ (US);
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) is provided by a method of apparatus ( ) particularly useful for sputtering conductive metal coating material from an annular magnetron sputtering target ( ). The sputtered material is ionized in a processing space between the target ( ) and a substrate ( ) by generating a dense plasma in the space with energy coupled from a coil ( ) located outside of the vacuum chamber ( ) behind a dielectric window ( ) in the chamber wall ( ) at the center of the opening ( ) in the sputtering target. A Faraday type shield ( ) physically shields the window to prevent coating material from coating the window, while allowing the inductive coupling of energy from the coil into the processing space. The location of the coil in the plane of the target or behind the target allows the target-to-wafer spacing to be chosen to optimize film deposition rate and uniformity, and also provides for the advantages of a ring-shaped source without the problems associated with unwanted deposition in the opening at the target center.