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Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

a processing apparatus and plasma technology, applied in the direction of electrical apparatus, electrical discharge tubes, basic electric elements, etc., can solve the problems of excessive fluctuation of plasma state, and deterioration of plasma stabilization, so as to improve plasma stabilization, improve plasma stabilization, and stable plasma process

Inactive Publication Date: 2010-09-30
TOKYO ELECTRON LTD
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

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Benefits of technology

[0007]In view of the foregoing, the present disclosure provides a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method capable of carrying out a stable plasma process by way of improving plasma stabilization and also capable of increasing lifetime of the variable capacitor in the matching unit, as compared to the conventional case.
[0023]In accordance with the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method capable of carrying out a stable plasma process by way of improving plasma stabilization and also capable of increasing lifetime of the variable capacitor in the matching unit, as compared to the conventional case.

Problems solved by technology

In such a plasma processing apparatus, however, if the high frequency power is applied in a pulse pattern through the power modulation, plasma state may fluctuate excessively during the rise of the pulse of the high frequency power.
Thus, it takes some time until plasma is stabilized.
At this time, since the matching unit attempts to perform the matching operation according to the fluctuation of the plasma state, a variable capacitor of the matching unit repeats minute movements, resulting in deterioration of plasma stabilization.
As a consequence, plasma processing state would become unstable, and lifetime of the variable capacitor would be shortened.

Method used

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first embodiment

[0094]This plasma etching apparatus is different from the plasma etching apparatus in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in that a high frequency power for plasma generation from a first high frequency power supply 48 is applied to a susceptor 16 serving as a lower electrode. Other configurations are basically the same as those of the plasma etching apparatus shown in FIG. 1. Thus, same reference numerals will be assigned to parts corresponding to those of FIG. 1, and redundant description will be omitted.

[0095]In the second embodiment, the first high frequency power supply 48 for generating plasma and a second high frequency power supply 90 for applying a bias for ion attraction are both connected with the susceptor 16 serving as the lower electrode. The first high frequency power supply 48 is connected with the susceptor 16 via a first matching unit 89. The first matching unit 89 has the same configuration as that of a second matching unit 88, and the first matching unit 89 func...

second embodiment

[0099]The second embodiment is implemented by a plasma etching apparatus of a lower-electrode dual-frequency application type that applies a first high frequency (RF) power for plasma generation and a second high frequency (RF) power for ion attraction to the susceptor 16 serving as the lower electrode. Advantages of this type plasma etching apparatus over the other types of capacitively coupled plasma etching apparatuses are briefly mentioned as follows.

[0100]First, the plasma can be generated closer to the wafer W and the plasma is not diffused widely by applying the high frequency power for plasma generation to the susceptor 16 serving as the lower electrode, and, thus, dissociation of the processing gas can be suppressed. Accordingly, even under condition that the internal pressure of the processing chamber 10 is high and the plasma density is low, it is possible to increase an etching rate of the semiconductor wafer W. Further, even in case that the high frequency power for pla...

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Abstract

There is provided a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method capable of carrying out a stable plasma process by way of improving plasma stabilization and also capable of increasing lifetime of a variable capacitor in a matching unit, as compared to a conventional case. The plasma processing apparatus includes a power modulation unit configured to perform a power modulation for periodically switching a high frequency power from a high frequency power supply between a first power and a second power higher than the first power. The matching unit is configured to stop a matching operation for a first power application time and for a preset time after a second power application is started.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-084748 filed on Mar. 31, 2009 and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 242,544 filed on Sep. 15, 2009, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present disclosure relates to a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method for performing a plasma process such as an etching process on a substrate.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Conventionally, a plasma processing apparatus that performs a plasma process such as an etching process or a film forming process on a semiconductor wafer, an LCD (liquid crystal display) glass substrate or the like has been widely employed in the field of manufacture of, e.g., a semiconductor device.[0004]As one of such plasma processing apparatuses, there is known a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus that generates plasma of a processing gas by applyi...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): H01L21/3065
CPCH01J37/32091H01L21/3065H01J37/32183H01J37/32146
Inventor KOGUCHI, GENKIMORISAKI, AKIOHANADA, YUKINORI
Owner TOKYO ELECTRON LTD
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