Plasma processing apparatus

Abstract

A plasma processing apparatus includes a processing gas supplying unit for supplying a desired processing gas to a processing space between an upper electrode and a lower electrode which are disposed facing each other in an evacuable processing chamber. The plasma processing apparatus further includes a radio frequency (RF) power supply unit for applying an RF power to one of the lower and the upper electrode to generate plasma of the processing gas by RF discharge and an electrically conductive RF ground member which covers a periphery portion of the electrode to which the RF power is applied to receive RF power emitted outwardly in radial directions from the periphery portion of the electrode to which the RF power is applied and send the received RF power to a ground line.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001]The present invention relates to a technique for performing a plasma processing on a substrate to be processed, and more particularly, to a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002]In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device or an FPD (flat panel display), a plasma is often used in the process, e.g., etching, deposition, oxidation, sputtering or the like, in order to allow a processing gas to react efficiently at a relatively low temperature. Conventionally, a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus is mainly used to easily realize a plasma having a large diameter for a single-wafer plasma processing apparatus.[0003]In general, in a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus, an upper electrode and a lower electrode are disposed in parallel with each other in a vacuum processing chamber, and a target substrate (e.g., a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate or the like) is mounted on the l...

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Benefits of technology

[0020]The RF power may have a frequency equal to or higher than 80 MHz. With such configuration, it is possible to improve in-plane uniformity of a plasma density and a plasma process in wide RF power ranges. Further, another RF power is applied to the lower electrode to attract ions in the plasma mainly towards the

Problems solved by technology

Here, it becomes difficult to make a plasma of a uniform density in a processing space of the chamber (particularly in a radial direction).

If the plasma density is non-uniform above the substrate, a plasma process also becomes non-uniform, which leads to a reduced production yield of devices.

However, if a frequency of the employed RF power is increased further, variation of the plasma density distribution (altitude difference in the mountain-like distribution) becomes larger in proportio

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