Gas supply system, substrate processing apparatus and gas supply method

Abstract

A gas supply system for supplying a gas into a processing chamber for processing a substrate to be processed includes: a processing gas supply unit; a processing gas supply line; a first and a second processing gas branch line; a branch flow control unit; an additional gas supply unit; an additional gas supply line; a first and a second additional gas branch line; a flow path switching unit; and a control unit. Before processing the substrate to be processed, the control unit performs a pressure ratio control on the branch flow control unit while the processing gas supply unit supplies the processing gas. After the inner pressures of the first and the second processing gas branch line become stable, the control unit switches the pressure ratio control to a fixed pressure control, and then the additional gas supply unit supplies the additional gas.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001]The present invention relates to a gas supply system for supplying a gas into a processing chamber, a substrate processing apparatus and a gas supply method.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002]A substrate processing apparatus is configured to perform specific processes such as a film forming process, an etching process and the like on a substrate to be processed (hereinafter, simply referred to as “substrate”) such as a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal substrate or the like.[0003]As for such a substrate processing apparatus, there has been known a plasma processing apparatus, for example. The plasma processing apparatus includes, inside a processing chamber, a lower electrode serving also as a mounting table for mounting thereon a substrate and an upper electrode serving also as a shower head for injecting a gas toward the substrate. Such a parallel plate type plasma processing apparatus is configured to perform specific processes such as a film formi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a gas supply system and the like, capable of achieving a desired in-surface uniformity by supplying gases from plural portions in a processing chamber with a simple line configuration and a simple control operation.

Problems solved by technology

Accordingly, a line configuration and a flow rate control in each of the lines become complicated, which results in requiring a large space for the lines and an increased burden of control.

Further, even if the gases can be supplied from plural portions in the processing chamber by a simple control operation, when a flow rate ratio (distribution ratio) of the processing gases supplied from the plural portions changes due to a pressure variation, for example, during the introduction of the gases, the desired in-surface uniformity cannot be achieved.

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