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. 25, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2002
Noriaki Tani, Chiba, JP;
Toshihiro Suzuki, Chiba, JP;
Satoshi Ikeda, Chiba, JP;
Hiroaki Kawamura, Chiba, JP;
Satoru Ishibashi, Chiba, JP;
Kouichi Hanzawa, Kanagawa, JP;
Takafumi Matsumoto, Kanagawa, JP;
Noriaki Tani, Chiba, JP;
Toshihiro Suzuki, Chiba, JP;
Satoshi Ikeda, Chiba, JP;
Hiroaki Kawamura, Chiba, JP;
Satoru Ishibashi, Chiba, JP;
Kouichi Hanzawa, Kanagawa, JP;
Takafumi Matsumoto, Kanagawa, JP;
ULVAC, Inc., Kanagawa, JP;
Abstract
The present invention provides an efficient thin film forming apparatus which is capable of correcting a film thickness so as to take care of a variation in distribution in the film thickness and to take care of the circumferential distribution of the film thickness, as well as a method for forming a thin film using this film forming apparatus. The method comprises the first step of first forming a thin film to a predetermined percentage out of thickness through an openingin a shutter, the second step of then using a film thickness monitorto measure the distribution of the thickness of the thin film formed in the first step, and the third step of reducing a film formation rate by an openingin the shutterbetween a substrateand a sputtering cathodeas compared to that of the first step and correcting the thickness of the thin film by an openingin the first film thickness correcting platebetween the substrateand the sputtering cathodecorresponding to the distribution of the film thickness measured by the film thickness monitorin the second step. Then, the second step is carried out again, during which the film thickness monitoris used to measure the distribution of the thickness of the thin film formed in the third step. Further, the third and second steps are repeatedly carried out.