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:
Oct. 20, 2009
Filed:
Apr. 02, 2007
Thai Cheng Chua, Cupertino, CA (US);
James P. Cruse, Soquel, CA (US);
Cory Czarnik, Saratoga, CA (US);
Thai Cheng Chua, Cupertino, CA (US);
James P. Cruse, Soquel, CA (US);
Cory Czarnik, Saratoga, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for igniting a gas mixture into plasma using capacitive coupling techniques, shielding the plasma and other contents of the plasma reactor from the capacitively-coupled electric field, and maintaining the plasma using inductive coupling are provided. For some embodiments, the amount of capacitive coupling may be controlled after ignition of the plasma. Such techniques are employed in an effort to prevent damage to the surface of a substrate from excessive ion bombardment caused by the highly energized ions and electrons accelerated towards and perpendicular to the substrate surface by the electric field of capacitively-coupled plasma.