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:
Mar. 03, 2015
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2012
Jianping Zhao, Austin, TX (US);
Lee Chen, Cedar Creek, TX (US);
Vincent M. Donnelly, Houston, TX (US);
Demetre J. Economou, Houston, TX (US);
Merritt Funk, Austin, TX (US);
Radha Sundararajan, Dripping Springs, TX (US);
Jianping Zhao, Austin, TX (US);
Lee Chen, Cedar Creek, TX (US);
Vincent M. Donnelly, Houston, TX (US);
Demetre J. Economou, Houston, TX (US);
Merritt Funk, Austin, TX (US);
Radha Sundararajan, Dripping Springs, TX (US);
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A surface wave plasma (SWP) source couples pulsed microwave (MW) energy into a processing chamber through, for example, a radial line slot antenna, to result in a low mean electron energy (T). To prevent impingement of the microwave energy onto the surface of a substrate when plasma density is low between pulses, an ICP source, such as a helical inductive source, a planar RF coil, or other inductively coupled source, is provided between the SWP source and the substrate to produce plasma that is opaque to microwave energy. The ICP source can also be pulsed in synchronism with the pulsing of the MW plasma in phase with the ramping up of the MW pulses. The ICP also adds an edge dense distribution of plasma to a generally chamber centric MW plasma to improve plasma uniformity.