RF pulses within pulses for semiconductor RF plasma processing.

Abstract

To provide a system and method for generating radio frequency (RF) pulse waveforms within a pulse for semiconductor RF plasma processing.SOLUTION: A method for generating pulses within a pulsed signal using a matchless RF source comprises: a step for defining an ON-OFF pulse train separated by an OFF state with no ON-OFF pulse; a step for generating RF waveforms by applying a multi-level pulse waveform that adjusts the magnitude of each of the ON-OFF pulses; and a step for delivering RF waveforms to electrodes.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 9

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present embodiment relates to radio frequency (RF) pulses within pulses for semiconductor RF plasma processing. [Background technology]

[0002] Plasma systems are used to perform various operations on wafers. The plasma system includes a radio frequency (RF) generator, an RF match, and a plasma chamber. The RF generator is connected to the RF match via an RF cable, and the RF match is connected to the plasma chamber. RF power is provided to the plasma chamber, where the wafer is processed, via the RF cable and the RF match. One or more gases are also supplied to the plasma chamber, and upon receiving RF power, a plasma is generated within the plasma chamber. During the supply of the one or more gases and RF power, the plasma processing of the wafer is preferably controlled in a desired manner.

[0003] It is in this context that the embodiments described in this disclosure arise. Summary of the Invention

[0004]

[0006] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system, apparatus, method, and computer program for RF pulses within pulses for semiconductor RF plasma processing. It should be understood that the embodiments can be implemented in many ways, such as a process, an apparatus, a system, hardware, a method, or a computer-readable medium. Several embodiments are described below.

[0005] In various embodiments, methods and apparatus are described that allow for simultaneous fast ON-OFF pulsing and slow pulsing (e.g., level-to-level, or multi-level, or arbitrary waveform pulsing / modulation), where the fast ON-OFF pulsing is always embedded in the slow pulsing. Pulsed plasmas with one or more pulse frequencies are provided simultaneously. Fast ON-OFF pulsing and slow pulsing are implemented simultaneously in a matchless plasma source.

[0006] In some embodiments, a "pulse within a pulse" is defined as a fast ON-OFF pulse embedded in a slow pulse. The radio frequency (RF) clock itself runs continuously at the RF frequency. The fast ON-OFF pulses turn the RF clock on and off at the inputs of multiple gate drivers and can be implemented by AND gates before the gate driver inputs. The slow pulses or modulation are performed by manipulating the rail voltages of the agile DC rails. The filter formed by the RF antenna or coil together with one or more reactive elements is a bandpass filter for the RF frequency, converting the square wave at the output of the bridge circuit to a sinusoidal waveform within the rotation range of the RF frequency or RF clock frequency. The RF clock frequency is adjusted during operation so that the plasma load, including the RF antenna and one or more reactive elements, is completely resistive to the output of the bridge circuit, with or without a plasma.

[0007] The systems and methods described herein provide several advantages. When applied to a transformer-coupled plasma (TCP) or inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source, fast ON-OFF pulses create a cold plasma with a low electron temperature and low plasma potential, resulting in a small-angle ion energy distribution. This reduces or prevents charging damage during isotropic etching processes. When applied to a TCP or ICP source, fast ON-OFF pulses enable high-aspect-ratio etching or deposition when combined with asynchronous bias RF pulses. Meanwhile, inter-level, multi-level, or arbitrary waveform pulses provide other improved process performance, such as high selectivity, high etch rate, and excellent uniformity. The methods and apparatus described herein enable simultaneous operation of both fast ON-OFF pulses and slow inter-level, multi-level, or arbitrary waveform pulses.

[0008] Other aspects will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] The embodiments are understood by reference to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a system for implementing pulses within pulses.

[0011] [Figure 2A] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an embodiment of a radio frequency (RF) clock signal.

[0012] [Figure 2B] FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an embodiment of an ON-OFF pulse signal having a frequency fFast pulsing.

[0013] [Figure 2C]2C is an illustration showing an embodiment of an ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal generated by performing an AND operation between the RF clock signal of FIG. 2A and the ON-OFF pulse signal of FIG. 2B.

[0014] [Figure 3A] FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a graph showing electron temperature transients versus time t in a plasma chamber when a shaped waveform is generated using an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal.

[0015] [Figure 3B] FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a graph of plasma potential versus time t when an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal is used to generate a shaped waveform.

[0016] [Figure 3C] FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a graph of ion density versus time t when a shaped waveform is generated using an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal.

[0017] [Figure 4A] 10A and 10B illustrate embodiments of an RF clock signal in standard and enlarged views.

[0018] [Figure 4B] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating embodiments of ON-OFF pulse signals in both standard and enlarged displays.

[0019] [Figure 4C] 4C illustrates an example of a multi-level pulse waveform implemented in conjunction with the RF clock signal of FIG. 4A filtered by the ON-OFF pulse signal of FIG. 4B.

[0020] [Figure 4D] 4C shows an example of an arbitrary waveform implemented in conjunction with the RF clock signal of FIG. 4A filtered by the ON-OFF pulse signal of FIG. 4B.

[0021] [Figure 5A] 4D is an illustration of an embodiment of RF current in the plasma load of FIG. 1 when the multi-level pulse waveform of FIG. 4C is applied.

[0022] [Figure 5B] 5B is a magnified view of the RF current waveform shown in FIG. 5A.

[0023] [Figure 5C] FIG. 5C is an explanatory diagram showing a sine waveform that is an enlargement of the RF current waveform shown in FIG. 5B.

[0024] [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a system comprising a transformer coupled plasma (TCP) source with RF pulses within pulses and RF bias with RF pulses within pulses.

[0025] [Figure 7] 10A-10C show examples of RF current waveforms for a TCP source with simultaneous ON-OFF asynchronous TCP bias pulses, multi-level TCP pulses, and arbitrary waveform bias pulses, and RF current waveforms for an RF bias, when the ON-OFF pulses between the TCP and bias are out of phase or asynchronous.

[0026] [Figure 8A] 10A-10C illustrate embodiments of graphs illustrating an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal shaped according to level-to-level pulses.

[0027] [Figure 8B] 1 illustrates an embodiment of a graph showing an ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal shaped according to a multi-level pulse.

[0028] [Figure 8C] 1 illustrates an embodiment of a graph showing an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal shaped according to an arbitrary waveform.

[0029] [Figure 9]4 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method for generating pulses in a pulsed signal using a matchless RF source.

[0030] [Figure 10A] 1 is a diagram showing a pulse within a pulse.

[0031] [Figure 10B] Graph showing the square wave voltage at the output of the bridge circuit.

[0032] [Figure 10C] Schematic representation of the RF current output from the bridge circuit and provided to an antenna or plasma load. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0033] The following embodiments describe radio frequency (RF) pulses within pulses for semiconductor RF plasma processing. It will be apparent that the embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well-known process operations have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the embodiments.

[0034] A radio frequency (RF) clock signal generator is provided in addition to the high-speed ON-OFF pulse frequency signal generator. A waveform generator is also provided to generate a shaped waveform. The RF clock signal generated by the RF clock signal generator is filtered using the pulse signal generated by the high-speed ON-OFF pulse frequency signal generator to output a filtered signal. The filtered signal is provided to a gate driver, which outputs a plurality of square wave signals. The square wave signal is provided to an amplifier circuit to generate an amplified square wave signal. The amplified square wave signal is then shaped using the filtered waveform. The filtered waveform is generated by filtering a direct current (DC) voltage with the shaped waveform. The shaped waveform may be an arbitrary shape waveform, a multi-level waveform, or an inter-level waveform. Shaping the amplified square wave signal generates a shaped waveform. High-order harmonics of the shaped waveform are filtered by a reactance circuit to output RF power provided to an electrode for processing a wafer.

[0035] 1 illustrates an embodiment of a system 100 for implementing the process described herein as "pulse within a pulse." In one embodiment, the system 100 includes a controller, a radio frequency (RF) frequency clock 104, a fast ON-OFF pulse frequency signal generator 106, a slow pulse frequency signal generator 108, an AND gate 110, a gate driver 112, a half-bridge circuit 114, a direct current (DC) power supply V DC The matchless inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source 102 includes a DC rail 116 that applies a DC voltage from a reactance circuit 118, a reactance circuit 118, and another AND gate 122. There is no impedance matching circuit or associated RF cable connected between the matchless ICP source 102 and the plasma load 120. The AND gate is sometimes referred to herein as a filter. The AND gate 122 is connected to a drain terminal D of a field effect transistor (FET) 144A in a half-bridge circuit 114. A source terminal S of the FET 144A is connected to a drain terminal D of another FET 144B in the half-bridge circuit 114, and the source terminal of the FET 144B is connected to ground potential.

[0036] An example of the reactance circuit 118 is a variable capacitor connected to a plasma load 120 having an electrode 124 (e.g., an RF antenna or an RF coil). The RF frequency clock 104 includes an oscillator circuit that generates an RF clock signal 134, which is a digital signal or a square wave signal having a high frequency. The fast ON-OFF pulse frequency signal generator 106 generates a fast ON-OFF pulse frequency f, such as a digital signal or a square wave signal. Fast pulsing The oscillator circuit generates an ON-OFF pulse signal 136 having a high-speed ON-OFF pulse frequency f Fast pulsing is determined based on the dynamics of the plasma characteristics during the RF power ON to RF power OFF transient. The ON-OFF pulse is realized using an AND gate 110 that performs an AND operation between an RF clock signal 134 and an ON-OFF pulse signal 136 as inputs. The AND operation is an example of a filtering operation. The AND gate 110 outputs an ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126.

[0037] The gate driver 112 receives an ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126 and outputs a plurality of square wave signals 128A and 128B. A gate G1 of the gate driver 112 receives the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126 and either amplifies or does not amplify the magnitude of the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126 to output the square wave signal 128A. If amplification is not performed, the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126 passes through the gate G1. Another gate G2 of the gate driver 112 receives the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126 and inverts the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 126 to output an inverted square wave signal 128B. The square wave signals 128A and 128B are each digital signals or pulse signals. For example, the square wave signals 128A and 128B each transition between a low level and a high level. Square wave signal 128A and square wave signal 128B are synchronized in opposite directions to each other. For example, square wave signal 128A transitions from a low power level to a high power level. During the time interval or period in which square wave signal 128A transitions from a low power level to a high power level, square wave signal 128B transitions from a high power level to a low power level. The opposite synchronization allows FETs 144A and 144B of half-bridge circuit 114 to be turned on and off sequentially. Half-bridge circuit 114 is sometimes referred to herein as an amplifier circuit.

[0038] Agile DC rail 116 and half-bridge circuit 114 generate an amplified square waveform from square wave signal 128A and square wave signal 128B. To generate the amplified square waveform, FET 144A and FET 144B are operated sequentially. For example, FET 144A is turned on during or when FET 144B is turned off. Also, FET 144A is turned off during or when FET 144B is turned on. FET 144A and FET 144B are not turned on at the same time or for the same period of time.

[0039] When FET144A is on, the current flows through the DC voltage source V DCA current flows from the output O1 to the output O1 of the half-bridge circuit 114, generating a voltage at the output O1, and FET 144B is turned off. The voltage at the output O1 is generated according to a voltage value received from a pulse frequency signal generator 108, which includes an oscillator circuit and is sometimes referred to herein as a waveform generator. When FET 144B is turned off, no current flows from the output O1 to the ground potential connected to FET 144B. Current flows from the output O1 to the reactance circuit 118. When FET 144A is turned on, the current flows from the DC voltage source V DC The voltage generated at output O1 is pushed from FET 144B to capacitor reactance circuit 118. Also, when FET 144B is on and FET 144A is off, the voltage generated at output O1 generates a current that flows from output O1 to the ground potential connected to FET 144B. Current is drawn from output O1 by the ground potential. During the time intervals when FET 144A is off, the DC voltage source V DC No current flows from output O1 to output O2.

[0040] The slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 also generates a shaped waveform 138 having an envelope with an arbitrary shape, a multi-level pulse shape, or an inter-level pulse shape. The slow pulse frequency of the slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or the slow pulse frequency of the shaped waveform 138 is f Slow pulsing The shaped waveform 138 may be represented by the following: A level-to-level pulse shape periodically transitions between a low power level and a high power level. A multi-level pulse shape periodically transitions between three or more power levels. An arbitrary shape has an arbitrary shape and periodically repeats. The controller 142 controls the slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 to generate the shaped waveform 138. The controller 142 provides the shape of the shaped waveform 138 to the slow pulse frequency signal generator 108. The slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 generates the shaped waveform 138 having the shape received from the controller 142. The shape of the waveform is the shape of the waveform's envelope. Examples of an envelope include peak-to-peak magnitude or zero-to-peak magnitude.

[0041] An AND gate 122, such as AND, is coupled to a DC voltage source V DCThe DC voltage provided by is filtered by a shaping waveform 138 to generate a filtered waveform 140 having a magnitude shaped according to the shaping waveform 138. The filtered waveform 140 is applied to the amplified square wave at the output O1 of the half-bridge circuit 114, shaping the amplified square wave (increasing or decreasing its envelope) to generate the shaped waveform 130 at the output O1. The shaping waveform 130 may be a digital waveform or a square waveform. The envelope of the amplified square waveform is shaped or adjusted by modifying the zero-to-peak amplitude or peak-to-peak amplitude of the amplified square waveform. Examples of shaping waveforms 130 include level-to-level shaped waveforms, multi-level shaped waveforms, or arbitrary shaped waveforms, where the shape of the shaped waveform 130 matches the shape of the envelope of the filtered waveform 140.

[0042] The reactance circuit 118 filters out or removes higher harmonics from the shaped waveform 130 to output or extract a shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 having RF power, which is provided to the electrode 124 of the plasma load 120 to generate or maintain a plasma in a plasma chamber for processing a substrate. The magnitude of the shaped waveform 130 is a combination of multiple waveform magnitudes, one of which has a fundamental frequency and the remaining higher harmonics. By filtering out the higher harmonics, the shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 having the fundamental frequency is output. The shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 has an envelope whose shape matches the shape of the envelope of the shaped waveform 130. The plasma chamber includes the plasma load 120. Examples of substrate processing include depositing material on a substrate, etching a substrate, cleaning a substrate, and sputtering a substrate. The shape of the shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 is defined by the shape of the filtered waveform 140. For example, the envelope of the shaped sine waveform 132 has the same shape as the envelope of the filtered waveform 140 .

[0043] In some embodiments, a "pulse within a pulse" is defined as a fast pulse embedded within a slow pulse. The RF clock generator 104 is continuously running at an RF frequency. In some embodiments, the "fast pulse" is the turning on and off of the RF clock signal 134 at the input of the gate driver 112, which may be implemented by an AND gate 110 before the input of the gate driver 112. The slow pulse or modulation is implemented by the DC voltage source V DC This is done by manipulating the rail voltage, which is a DC voltage provided by the RF plasma antenna or coil. The filter formed by the RF plasma antenna or coil along with one or more reactive elements (e.g., reactive element 118) is a bandpass filter for RF frequencies that transitions the square wave at the bridge output to a sinusoidal waveform over the tuning range of the RF frequency or RF clock frequency. The RF clock frequency is adjusted during operation so that the plasma load 120 and one or more reactive elements make the output O1 of the half-bridge circuit 114 completely resistive, with or without a plasma.

[0044] In one embodiment, electrode 124 is replaced by another electrode, such as a bottom electrode or plate embedded in the substrate support, and RF power in the shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 is supplied to the other electrode. An example of a substrate support includes a chuck.

[0045] In one embodiment, p-type FETs are used instead of n-type FETs 144A and FETs 144B.

[0046] 2A illustrates an embodiment of an RF clock signal 134. The RF clock signal 134 has a higher frequency than the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 illustrated in FIG. 2B. For example, multiple pulses of the RF clock signal 134 are generated during the time period in which one pulse of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 is generated. The RF clock signal 134 includes multiple instances 212A, 212B, and 212C of an ON state, and multiple instances 214A and 214B of an OFF state. Instance 214A follows instance 212A, which follows instance 212B, which follows instance 214A, which follows instance 214B, which follows instance 212B, and which follows instance 214B.

[0047] Figure 2B shows the frequency f Fast pulsing 2B illustrates an embodiment of an ON-OFF pulse signal 136 having a frequency lower than the frequency of the RF clock signal 134. For example, the on-time of the pulses of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 is longer than the on-time of the pulses of the RF clock signal 134. As another example, the off-time of the pulses of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 is longer than the off-time of the pulses of the RF clock signal 134. The ON-OFF pulse signal 136 has multiple instances 210A, 210B, and 210C of the ON state and multiple instances 208A and 208B of the OFF state. The instances of the ON state and the instances of the OFF state periodically repeat. As shown in FIG. 2B , instance 210A is followed by instance 208A. Instance 208A is followed by instance 210B, which is followed by instance 208B. Instance 208B is followed by instance 210C.

[0048] 2C illustrates an embodiment of an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126 that is generated by performing an AND operation. As shown in FIG. 2C, the pulses of RF clock signal 134 that are between two adjacent ON pulses of ON-OFF pulse signal 136 are filtered out by AND gate 110 to generate ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126. ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126 is generated by ANDing the pulse train T of RF clock signal 134. R 1, the pulse train T of the RF clock signal 134 R 2. The pulse train T of the RF clock signal 134 R Contains 3. Column T R 1 occurs during instance 210A of the ON state, and TR2 occurs during instance 210B of the ON state, and TR3 occurs during instance 210C of the ON state. R 1 is in the OFF state by instance 208A in column T R Separated from 2, column T R 2 is in the OFF state by instance 208B in column T R 3. During each of instances 208A and 208B, the ON-OFF pulses of RF clock signal 126 remove the ON-OFF pulses of RF clock signal 134. The pulses of ON-OFF pulses of RF clock signal 126 during each of instances 208A and 208B are filtered out by AND gate 110 of FIG.

[0049] 3A is an embodiment of a graph illustrating the transient state of electron temperature kTe in a plasma chamber versus time t when shaped waveform 130 of FIG. 1 is generated using ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126. The electron temperature transitions from a high state to a low state as RF power is supplied to plasma load 120.

[0050] 3B is an embodiment of a graph illustrating the plasma potential Vp in the plasma chamber versus time t when the shaped waveform 130 is generated using the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126. The plasma potential Vp transitions from a high state to a low state when RF power is supplied to the plasma load 120.

[0051] 3C is an embodiment of a graph showing the ion density N i in the plasma chamber versus time t when the shaped waveform 130 is generated using the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126. The time t in each of FIGS. 3A-3C is measured in microseconds. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3C, it takes about 10 microseconds for the electron temperature to transition from a high level to a low level during the OFF time, while the ion density remains at about 80%. Therefore, the fast ON-OFF pulse frequency f Fast pulsing may range from approximately 1 kilohertz (kHz) to 1 megahertz (MHz) up to 25 kHz or greater.

[0052] In some embodiments, the plasma chamber described herein is a conductor etch chamber used to process 300 millimeter wafers. This is by way of example only. In various embodiments, the plasma chamber described herein is a chamber used to process wafers of other sizes. For example, the plasma chamber is used to process 200 mm wafers, or 450 mm wafers, or wafers of other sizes.

[0053] The angular ion energy rapidly reaches a minimum as a function of electron temperature during the OFF time of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136. When the bias RF is pulsed ON-OFF asynchronously with the TCP ON-OFF pulsing, the ions accelerated by the bias RF during the TCP OFF time have high directionality with respect to the wafer, producing the desired vertical profile for etching or the desired bottom-up deposition for gap-fill. This is how high aspect ratio etching is performed to achieve aspect ratios up to about 150 in deep silicon etching (DSE) processes. However, when the bias RF is operated with multi-level pulses asynchronously with the TCP ON-OFF pulsing, the frequency of the multi-level pulses can be adjusted to a frequency f of about 10 hertz (Hz) to 1 kHz. Slow pulsing The etching rate is limited by the speed at which the DC rail 116 is moved in the range of . The speed at which the DC rail 116 is moved is the speed at which the FETs 144A and 144B in FIG. 1 are turned on and off. If the TCP ON-OFF pulse operates at a low pulse frequency or has a long OFF time of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136, the etching rate is limited by the low average ion density during the OFF time. To take full advantage of the ON-OFF pulse, and the multi-level pulse, or the arbitrary waveform pulse, or the inter-level pulse, a fast ON-OFF pulse frequency f Fast pulsing is the slow pulse frequency f Slow pulsing In process applications where bias RF power is used, fast ON-OFF pulses of the bias RF are incorporated into slow multi-level pulses, or arbitrary waveform pulses, or inter-level pulses having the same frequency f Fast pulsing The TCP source's fast ON-OFF pulses are asynchronous or out of phase with each other. The ON-OFF pulses are always asynchronous between the TCP and the bias, but the TCP source's multi-level or arbitrary waveform pulses and the bias RF pulses run independently of each other at their slow pulse frequencies.

[0054] 4A shows an embodiment of an RF clock signal 134 in both a standard view and an expanded view. The RF clock signal 134 flows at a high frequency, such as a high frequency, between high and low levels.

[0055] 4B shows an embodiment of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 in both the standard and expanded views. The ON-OFF pulse signal 136 flows between high and low levels at a lower frequency than the RF clock signal 134, and the frequency of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 is used to filter the RF clock signal 134.

[0056] 4C shows an example of a slow pulse waveform, such as a multi-level pulse waveform 410A, running simultaneously with the RF clock signal 134 of FIG. 4A and the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 of FIG. 4B. The multi-level pulse waveform 410A has a multi-level shaped envelope 412A and is an example of the shaped waveform 138 of FIG. 1. The multi-level shaped envelope 412A is multi-level pulse shaped and is driven by a DC voltage source V DC The multiple power levels (e.g., PWR1, PWR2, PWR3, and PWR4) are applied to the DC voltage source V. The multiple power levels cycle periodically. A multi-level shaped envelope 412A is applied to the DC voltage source V. DC 1. When applied to a DC voltage of 100 kHz, a filtered waveform 140 having a multi-level shaped envelope 412A is output from AND gate 122 of FIG.

[0057] In one embodiment, instead of the four power levels PWR1 through PWR4, another multi-level pulse waveform is used having power levels greater than or less than the four power levels, and the power levels greater than or less than the four power levels are periodically repeated.

[0058] 4D shows another example of a slow pulse waveform, such as arbitrary waveform 410B, running simultaneously with RF clock signal 134 of FIG. 4A and ON-OFF pulse signal 136 of FIG. 4B. Arbitrary waveform 410B has an arbitrarily shaped envelope 412B and is another example of shaped waveform 138 of FIG. 1. The arbitrarily shaped envelope 412B is driven by a DC voltage source V DC The arbitrary shaped envelope 412B has a different magnitude due to the application of a DC voltage source V DC 1. When applied to a DC voltage of .gtoreq.1, a filtered waveform 140 having an arbitrarily shaped envelope 412B is produced by AND gate 122 of FIG.

[0059] Figure 5A illustrates an embodiment of an RF current waveform 501 in the plasma load 120 of Figure 1 when the multi-level pulse waveform 410A of Figure 4C is applied. The section labeled A in Figure 5A includes multiple portions 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, and 520 of the RF current waveform 501. The RF current waveform 501 is generated in the plasma load 120 and is representative of the shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 of Figure 1.

[0060] Figure 5B shows an enlargement of the RF current waveform 501 shown in Figure 5A. Section A of Figure 5A is shown in detail in Figure 5B. For example, portions 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, and 520 are all clearly visible in Figure 5B. Portions 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, and 520 are each sinusoidal RF signals represented in Figure 5C.

[0061] Also, Figure 5C shows a sinusoidal waveform that is an expansion of RF current waveform 501 shown in Figure 5B. Figure 5C is an expansion of the section labeled B in Figure 5B. As shown in Figure 5C, portion 510 and portion 512 are each sinusoidal signals.

[0062] 6 illustrates an embodiment of a system 600 including a compound TCP source and RF bias with RF pulses within the pulses. The system 600 includes the matchless ICP source 102 of FIG. 1. The system 600 further includes a NOT gate 623, such as an inverter, and a matchless bias source 602. The matchless bias source 602 includes a controller 142, an RF frequency clock 604, a fast ON-OFF pulse frequency signal generator 106, an AND gate 610, a slow pulse frequency signal generator 608, a gate driver 612, a half-bridge circuit 614, and another DC voltage source V DC The bias electrode 638 includes a DC rail 616 to which a DC voltage of is applied, a reactance circuit 618, and an AND gate 622. An example of the reactance circuit 618 is an inductor connected to a plasma load 620. The electrode 124 is a coil or antenna of the plasma chamber, and the bias electrode 638 is a bottom electrode embedded in the substrate support of the plasma chamber.

[0063] The RF clock 604 has the same structure and function as the RF clock 104. The gate driver 612 has the same structure and function as the gate driver 112, and the agile DC rail 616 has the same structure and function as the agile DC rail 116. Similarly, the slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 has the same structure and function as the slow pulse frequency signal generator 108. However, the slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 operates independently from the slow pulse frequency generator 108. For example, the slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 generates an arbitrary shape waveform, while the slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 generates a multi-level shape waveform.

[0064] The RF clock 604 is a clock signal 62 1The NOT gate 623 inverts the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 to output an inverted ON-OFF pulse signal 624. For example, during a time interval in which the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 has an ON state, the inverted ON-OFF pulse signal 624 has an OFF state, and during a time interval in which the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 has an OFF state, the inverted ON-OFF pulse signal 624 has an ON state.

[0065] AND gate 610 uses inverted ON-OFF pulse signal 624 to generate RF clock signal 62 1 to output an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 626. During periods when the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126 has an ON state or a high power level, the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 626 has an OFF state or a low power level, and during periods when the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 126 has an OFF state or a low power level, the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 626 has an ON state or a high power level. The multiple instances of the ON state of the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 626 are filtered to output an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 626 during the multiple instances of the OFF state of the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal 626. 1 RF clock signal 62 with no pulses 1 It has an ON-OFF pulse train.

[0066] Gate G3 of gate driver 612 receives ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 626 and amplifies or does not amplify ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 626 to output square wave signal 628A. When ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 626 is not amplified, ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 626 passes through gate G3 and is output as square wave signal 628A. Gate G4 of gate driver 612 also receives ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 626 and inverts ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal 626 to output square wave signal 628B. Square wave signal 628B is inverted and synchronized with square wave signal 628A.

[0067] Similar to how the half-bridge circuit 114 generates the amplified square waveform, the half-bridge circuit 614 receives the square wave signals 628A and 628B and generates an amplified square waveform from the square wave signals 628A and 628B. The slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 generates a shaped waveform 630 having an envelope with an arbitrary shape, a multi-level pulse shape, or an inter-level pulse shape. The controller 142 controls the slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 to generate the shaped waveform 630. The controller 142 provides the shape of the shaped waveform 630 to the slow pulse frequency signal generator 608. The shape of the shaped waveform 630 can be different from or the same as the shape of the shaped waveform 138. The slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 generates the shaped waveform 630 having the shape received from the controller 142.

[0068] AND gate 622, such as AND, is connected to the DC voltage source V DC The DC voltage provided by matchless bias source 602 is filtered by shaping waveform 630 to generate a filtered waveform 632 having a magnitude shaped according to shaping waveform 630. Filtered waveform 632 has an envelope with the same shape as that of shaping waveform 630. Filtered waveform 632 is applied to the amplified square waveform at output O2 of half-bridge circuit 614 to shape (e.g., increase or decrease its envelope) the amplified square waveform of matchless bias source 602 to generate shaped waveform 634 at output O2. Shaping waveform 634 is a digital waveform or a square waveform. The envelope of the amplified square waveform generated in matchless bias source 602 is adjusted by modulating the zero-to-peak amplitude or peak-to-peak amplitude of the amplified square waveform. Examples of shaping waveform 634 include a level-to-level shaped waveform, a multi-level shaped waveform, or an arbitrary shaped waveform, where the shape of shaped waveform 634 matches the shape of filtered waveform 632. The shape of the envelope of the shaped waveform 634 matches the shape of the envelope of the filtered waveform 632 .

[0069] The reactance circuit 618 filters out or removes higher harmonics of the shaped waveform 634 to output or extract a shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 having RF power. The RF power of the shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 is provided to a bias electrode 638 of the plasma load 620 to generate or maintain a plasma in the plasma chamber to process a substrate supported on a substrate support in the plasma chamber. The magnitude of the shaped waveform 634 is a combination of multiple waveform magnitudes, one of which has a fundamental frequency and the remaining higher harmonics. By filtering out the higher harmonics, the shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 having the fundamental frequency is output. The shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 has an envelope whose shape matches the shape of the envelope of the shaped waveform 634. The shape of the shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 is defined by the shape of the filtered waveform 632. For example, the envelope of the shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 has the same shape as the envelope of the filtered waveform 632.

[0070] The matchless ICP source 102 supplies a shaped sine waveform 132 having RF pulses within pulses to the plasma chamber plasma load 120, and the matchless bias source 602 supplies a shaped sine waveform 636 having RF pulses within pulses to the plasma chamber plasma load 620. The shaped sine waveform 636 is inversely synchronized with respect to the shaped sine waveform 132. For example, at times or during which the shaped sine waveform 132 has a high power level, the shaped sine waveform 636 has a low power level, and at times or during which the shaped sine waveform 132 has a low power level, the shaped sine waveform 636 has a high power level.

[0071] In various embodiments, one or more capacitors are used as the reactive circuit instead of the inductor.In some embodiments, one or more inductors are used as the reactive circuit instead of the capacitor.

[0072] In one embodiment, instead of the NOT gate 623 , a phase shifter is used to change the phase of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 to output the ON-OFF pulse signal that is provided to the AND gate 610 .

[0073] 7 shows an example of RF current waveform 501 of a TCP source having simultaneously ON-OFF asynchronous TCP bias pulses, multi-level TCP pulses, and arbitrary waveform bias pulses, and RF current waveform 704 of an RF bias, where the ON-OFF pulses between the TCP and bias are out of phase or asynchronous. For example, slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 generates a multi-level pulse shaped waveform to provide RF current waveform 501 to plasma load 120, and slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 generates an arbitrary shape shaped waveform to provide RF current waveform 704 to plasma load 620.

[0074] In some embodiments, the ON-OFF pulses between the TCP and the bias are in phase.

[0075] FIG. 8A is an illustration of an embodiment of a graph representing a shaped waveform 802 applied to a plasma load, such as plasma load 120 of FIG. 6 or plasma load 620 of FIG. 6. The shaped waveform 802 is an example of the shaped waveform 130 generated at output O1 of half-bridge circuit 114 of FIG. 6 or an example of the shaped waveform 634 generated at output O2 of half-bridge circuit 614 of FIG. 6. The graph of FIG. 8A depicts the magnitude or amplitude of the shaped waveform 802 over time t. The shaped waveform 802 is generated based on the RF clock signal 134 and the shaped waveform 804. The shaped waveform 804 is an example of the shaped waveform 138 generated by the slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or an example of the shaped waveform generated by the slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 of FIG. 6. The shaped waveform 802 is generated when a slow pulse frequency signal generator, such as slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or slow pulse frequency signal generator 608, applies level-to-level pulses to the RF clock signal 134. The shaped waveform 802 periodically transitions between low and high power levels.

[0076] FIG. 8B is an illustration of an embodiment of a graph depicting a shaped waveform 810 applied to plasma load 120 of FIG. 6 or plasma load 620 of FIG. 6. Shaping waveform 810 is another example of shaped waveform 130 generated at output O1 of half-bridge circuit 114 of FIG. 6 or another example of shaped waveform 634 generated at output O2 of half-bridge circuit 614 of FIG. 6. The graph of FIG. 8B depicts the magnitude of shaped waveform 810 over time t. Shaping waveform 810 is generated based on RF clock signal 134 and shaped waveform 812 and is an example of shaped waveform 138 generated by slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or an example of a shaped waveform generated by slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 of FIG. 6. Shaping waveform 810 is generated when slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 applies multi-level pulses to RF clock signal 134.

[0077] FIG. 8C is an embodiment diagram of a graph depicting a shaped waveform 820 provided to plasma load 120 of FIG. 6 or plasma load 620 of FIG. 6. The shaped waveform 820 is yet another example of the shaped waveform 130 generated at output O1 of half-bridge circuit 114 of FIG. 6 or yet another example of the shaped waveform 634 generated at output O2 of half-bridge circuit 614 of FIG. 6. The graph of FIG. 8C plots the magnitude of the shaped waveform 820 versus time t. The shaped waveform 820 is generated based on RF clock signal 134 and a shaped waveform 822 and is an example of the shaped waveform 138 generated by slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or an example of the shaped waveform generated by slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 of FIG. 6. The shaped waveform 820 is generated when slow pulse frequency signal generator 108 or slow pulse frequency signal generator 608 applies an arbitrarily shaped pulse to RF clock signal 134.

[0078] 9 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method 900 illustrating the generation of an RF waveform applied to a plasma load, such as plasma load 120 or plasma load 620 of FIG. 6. Method 900 includes operation 902 of defining an ON-OFF pulse RF clock, such as ON-OFF pulse RF clock 126 or ON-OFF pulse RF clock 626 of FIG. 6. The ON-OFF pulse RF clock has a train of ON-OFF pulses separated by OFF states with no ON-OFF pulses. Method 900 further includes operation 902 of applying a shaped waveform, such as shaped waveform 138 or shaped waveform 630 (FIG. 6), which adjusts the magnitude of the ON-OFF pulse RF clock to generate a shaped sinusoidal waveform. 4 The shaped sinusoidal waveform may be the shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 or the shaped sinusoidal waveform 636 depicted in Figure 6. The method 900 includes an operation 90 of delivering the shaped sinusoidal waveform to an electrode of a plasma load, such as the plasma load 120 or the plasma load 620 of Figure 6. 6 Includes.

[0079] Figure 10A is an illustration of an embodiment of a graph 1000 depicting a slow pulse signal 1006 versus time t, a fast pulse signal 1008 versus time t, and an RF clock signal 134 versus time t. The slow pulse signal 1006 is an example of the shaped waveform 138 or shaped waveform 630 of Figure 6, and the fast pulse signal 1008 is an example of the ON-OFF pulse signal 136 of Figure 6. Figure 10A depicts the multi-level pulses of the slow pulse signal 1006 along with the simultaneous fast ON-OFF pulses.

[0080] Figure 10B is an illustration of an embodiment of a graph 1002 depicting a square wave voltage 1012 at the output O1 of the half bridge circuit 114 of Figure 1 versus time t. The square wave voltage 1012 is an example of the shaped waveform 130 provided at the output O1.

[0081] 10C is an illustration of an embodiment of a graph 1004 depicting a sinusoidal RF current 1014 output from the half-bridge circuit 114 of FIG. 1. The RF current 1014 is provided to the electrode 124 of FIG. 1 or to the plasma load 120 of FIG. 1. The RF current 1014 is an example of the shaped sinusoidal waveform 132 of FIG. 1.

[0082] The embodiments described herein may be performed by various computer system configurations including handheld hardware units, microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics devices, minicomputers, mainframe computers, etc. The embodiments described herein may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing hardware units that are linked through a computer network.

[0083] In some embodiments, a controller, such as a host computer, can be part of a system, such as those examples described above. The system includes semiconductor processing equipment, including processing tools, chambers, processing platforms, and / or specific processing components (such as wafer pedestals and gas flow systems). The system is integrated with electronics for controlling its operation before, during, and after processing of semiconductor wafers or substrates. By electronics, we mean a "controller" that can control various components or subcomponents of the system. The controller is programmed to control the processes disclosed herein, including process gas supply, temperature settings (e.g., heating and / or cooling), pressure settings, vacuum settings, power settings, RF generator settings, RF matching circuit settings, frequency settings, flow rate settings, fluid supply settings, position operation settings, wafer transfer to or from tools and other transfer tools and / or load locks connected to or connected to the system, depending on the processing conditions and / or system type.

[0084] Generally, in various embodiments, a controller is defined as an electronic device having various integrated circuits, logic, memory, and / or software that receives instructions, issues instructions, controls operations, enables cleaning operations, enables endpoint measurements, etc. Integrated circuits include firmware-based chips that store program instructions, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), one or more microprocessors, or microcontrollers that execute program instructions (e.g., software). Program instructions are instructions communicated to the controller in the form of various personalizations (or program files) that define operational parameters for performing processes on or for semiconductor wafers. In some embodiments, the operational parameters are part of a recipe defined by a process engineer to accomplish one or more processing steps during the fabrication of one or more layers, materials, metals, oxides, silicon, silicon dioxide, surfaces, circuits, and / or wafer dies.

[0085] In some embodiments, the controller is part of or connected to a computer that is integrated into, connected to, or otherwise networked to the system, or a combination thereof. For example, the controller may be in the "cloud" or all or part of a fab host computer system, enabling remote access of wafer processing. The controller enables remote access to the system to monitor the progress of manufacturing operations, examine the history of past manufacturing operations, examine trends or performance metrics from multiple manufacturing operations, change parameters of a current process, set up processing steps following a current process, or initiate a new process.

[0086] In some examples, a remote computer (e.g., a server) provides process recipes to the system over a computer network, including a local network or the Internet. The remote computer includes a user interface that allows entry or programming of parameters and / or settings, which are then communicated to the system from the remote computer. In some examples, the controller receives instructions in the form of settings for processing wafers. It should be understood that the settings are specific to the type of process to be performed on the wafers and the type of tool the controller connects to or controls. Thus, as described above, a controller may be distributed, for example, by including one or more individual controllers that are networked with each other and cooperate toward a common purpose, such as performing the processes described herein. An example of a controller distributed for such purposes includes one or more integrated circuits on a chamber that are located remotely (e.g., at the platform level or as part of a remote computer) and communicate with one or more integrated circuits that cooperate to control the process in the chamber.

[0087] Without being limiting, in various embodiments, the system includes a plasma etch chamber, a deposition chamber, a spin rinse chamber, a metal plating chamber, a clean chamber, a bevel edge etch chamber, a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) chamber, an atomic layer etch (ALE) chamber, an ion implantation chamber, and other semiconductor processing chambers related to or used in the fabrication and / or manufacturing of semiconductor wafers.

[0088] It is further noted that although the above operations are described with reference to a transformer-coupled plasma (TCP) reactor, in some embodiments the above operations apply to other types of plasma chambers (e.g., conductor tools, dielectric etch chambers, ion implantation chambers, chambers with showerheads, etc.).

[0089] As described above, depending on the process steps being performed by the tool, the controller communicates with one or more of other tool circuits or tool modules, other tool components, cluster tools, other tool interfaces, adjacent tools, nearby tools, tools installed throughout the factory, a main computer, another controller, or tools used to transport materials to and from tool locations and / or load ports in a semiconductor manufacturing factory to transport wafer containers.

[0090] In light of the above embodiments, it should be understood that some embodiments employ various computer-implemented operations involving data stored in computer systems. These computer-implemented operations manipulate physical quantities.

[0091] Some embodiments also relate to a hardware unit or apparatus for performing these operations, which apparatus is specifically created for a special purpose computer. When defined as a special purpose computer, the computer has the capability to operate for a specific purpose, yet performs other processes, programs, or routines that are not part of the specific purpose.

[0092] In some embodiments, the operations described herein are performed by a selectively activated computer, configured by one or more computer programs stored in computer memory, or obtained over a computer network. When data is obtained over a computer network, the data may be processed by other computers on the computer network, including multiple computing resources.

[0093] One or more embodiments described herein may also be created as computer-readable code on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The non-transitory computer-readable medium is a data storage hardware unit, such as a memory device, that stores data that is subsequently read into a computer system. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media include hard drives, network-attached storage (NAS), ROM, RAM, compact disc-ROM (CD-ROM), recordable CD (CD-R), rewritable CD (CD-RW), magnetic tape, and other optical and non-optical data storage hardware units. In some embodiments, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprises a computer-readable tangible medium distributed over network-connected computer systems such that the computer-readable code is stored or executed in a distributed manner.

[0094] While some of the method operations above have been described in a particular order, it should be understood that in various embodiments, other housekeeping operations are performed between operations, or the method operations are adjusted to occur at slightly different times, or to be distributed in a system that allows the method operations to occur at various intervals, or to be performed in an order different from that described above.

[0095] It is further noted that in one embodiment, one or more features of the above-described embodiment may be combined with one or more features of other embodiments without departing from the scope of the various embodiments described in this disclosure.

[0096] Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered illustrative and not restrictive, and the embodiments are not limited to the details set forth herein, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. The present disclosure includes the following application examples: [Application example 1] 1. A method for generating a shaped sinusoidal waveform, comprising: defining an ON-OFF pulsed radio frequency (RF) clock, the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock having a train of ON-OFF pulses separated by OFF states with no ON-OFF pulses; applying a shaped waveform that adjusts the magnitude of the ON-OFF pulse RF clock to generate the shaped sinusoidal waveform; delivering the shaped sinusoidal waveform to an electrode; A method comprising: [Application example 2] The method according to Application Example 1, The method wherein the electrode is a coil or a substrate support. [Application example 3] The method according to Application Example 1, the ON-OFF pulse RF clock has an ON state; The method further comprises: inverting the ON-OFF pulse RF clock to output an inverted square wave signal; outputting an amplified square waveform from the square wave signal and the inverted square wave signal; The step of applying the shaped waveform comprises: adjusting the magnitude of the amplified square waveform to produce a shaped waveform; extracting the shaped sinusoidal waveform from the shaped waveform; A method comprising: [Application example 4] The method according to Application Example 3, A method wherein the step of adjusting the magnitude of the amplified square waveform is performed to output an inter-level shaped waveform, or a multi-level shaped waveform, or an arbitrary shaped waveform. [Application example 5] The method according to Application Example 1, the ON-OFF pulse RF clock has an ON state; The method wherein the ON-OFF pulse train has a frequency greater than the frequencies of the ON and OFF states. [Application Example 6] 1. A method comprising: generating a clock signal having a high frequency; providing a pulsed signal; filtering the clock signal according to the ON and OFF states of the pulse signal to output an ON-OFF pulse radio frequency (RF) clock signal; generating a plurality of square wave signals from the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal; generating an amplified square waveform from the plurality of square wave signals; generating a shaped waveform; filtering a DC voltage associated with an agile direct current (DC) rail according to the shaped waveform to generate a filtered waveform; shaping the amplified square waveform based on the filtered waveform to generate a shaped waveform; extracting a shaped sinusoidal waveform from the shaped waveform, the shaped sinusoidal waveform being output based on a shaped envelope defined by the filtered waveform; providing RF power of the shaped sinusoidal waveform to generate a plasma for processing a substrate; A method comprising: [Application Example 7] The method according to Application Example 6, The method, wherein providing the pulsed signal comprises providing the pulsed signal at a frequency lower than the high frequency. [Application Example 8] The method according to Application Example 6, providing the pulse signal includes providing a plurality of pulses to provide a plurality of instances of an ON state and a plurality of instances of an OFF state; each of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the pulse signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the pulse signal, and each of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the pulse signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the pulse signal; generating the clock signal includes generating a plurality of pulses to provide a plurality of instances of an ON state and a plurality of instances of an OFF state; wherein each of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the clock signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the clock signal, and wherein each of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the clock signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the clock signal. [Application Example 9] The method according to Application Example 8, The method, wherein filtering the clock signal includes filtering out some of the plurality of pulses of the clock signal according to the OFF state of the pulse signal. [Application Example 10] The method according to Application Example 6, receiving the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal and generating the plurality of square wave signals; passing the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal to output a first square wave signal of the plurality of square wave signals; inverting the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal to output a second square wave signal of the plurality of square wave signals; A method comprising: [Application Example 11] The method according to Application Example 6, The method, wherein the step of shaping the amplified square waveform based on the filtered waveform to generate the shaped waveform includes the step of applying an envelope of the filtered waveform to the amplified square waveform to match the envelope of the amplified square waveform to the envelope of the filtered waveform. [Application Example 12] The method according to Application Example 6, The method, wherein extracting the shaped sinusoidal waveform from the shaped waveform includes removing higher order harmonics from the shaped waveform to output a fundamental frequency waveform. [Application Example 13] The method according to Application Example 6, A method wherein the shaped envelope is a multi-level pulse shaped envelope, or an inter-level shaped envelope, or an arbitrary shaped envelope. [Application Example 14] 1. A matchless plasma source for providing radio frequency (RF) power to an electrode of a plasma chamber used to process a substrate, comprising: an RF clock configured to generate a clock signal having a high frequency; a pulse generator configured to provide a pulse signal; a first filter configured to filter the clock signal according to ON and OFF states of the pulse signal to output an ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal; a gate driver configured to receive the ON-OFF pulse RF clock signal and generate a plurality of square wave signals; an amplifier circuit configured to receive the plurality of square wave signals from the gate driver and generate an amplified square waveform; a waveform generator configured to generate a shaped waveform; a second filter configured to filter a DC voltage associated with an agile direct current (DC) rail according to the shaped waveform to generate a filtered waveform, the filtered waveform shaping the amplified square waveform to generate a shaped waveform at an output of the amplifier circuit; a reactance circuit configured to extract a shaped sinusoidal waveform from the shaped waveform, the shaped sinusoidal waveform being output based on a shaped envelope defined by the filtered waveform, and the reactance circuit configured to provide the RF power of the shaped sinusoidal waveform to generate a plasma for the processing of the substrate. [Application Example 15] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, A matchless plasma source, wherein the pulsed signal has a frequency lower than the radio frequency. [Application Example 16] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, the pulse signal has a plurality of pulses to provide multiple instances of an ON state and multiple instances of an OFF state; each of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the pulse signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the pulse signal, and each of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the pulse signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the pulse signal; the clock signal having a plurality of pulses to provide a plurality of instances of an ON state and a plurality of instances of an OFF state; a matchless plasma source, wherein each of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the clock signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the clock signal, and wherein each of the plurality of instances of the OFF state of the clock signal is followed by a corresponding instance of the plurality of instances of the ON state of the clock signal. [Application Example 17] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 16, The matchless plasma source, wherein the first filter is an AND gate configured to filter out some of the plurality of pulses of the clock signal according to the OFF state of the pulse signal. [Application Example 18] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, the gate driver includes a first gate and a second gate, the first gate configured to pass the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal to output a first square wave signal of the plurality of square wave signals, and the second gate configured to invert the ON-OFF pulsed RF clock signal to output a second square wave signal of the plurality of square wave signals. [Application Example 19] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, A matchless plasma source, wherein the filtered waveform shapes the envelope of the amplified square waveform according to the envelope of the filtered waveform. [Application Example 20] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, The reactance circuit is configured to extract the shaped sinusoidal waveform from the shaped waveform by removing higher order harmonics from the shaped waveform to output a fundamental frequency waveform. [Application Example 21] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, The matchless plasma source, wherein the amplifier circuit includes a plurality of transistors, and the second filter is connected to the plurality of transistors. [Application Example 22] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, The matchless plasma source, wherein the shaped envelope is a multi-level pulse shaped envelope, or an inter-level shaped envelope, or an arbitrarily shaped envelope. [Application Example 23] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, A matchless plasma source, wherein the reactance circuit is configured to remove higher order harmonics of the shaped waveform to generate a fundamental waveform, the shaped sinusoidal waveform being the fundamental waveform having the shaped envelope. [Application Example 24] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, A matchless plasma source, wherein a reactance circuit is connected to the electrode without using an RF match. [Application Example 25] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, The matchless plasma source, wherein the DC agile rail comprises a DC voltage source, and the matchless plasma source further comprises a controller configured to control the shape of the shaped waveform. [Application Example 26] The matchless plasma source according to Application Example 14, A matchless plasma source, wherein a matchless bias source is connected to a substrate support electrode of the plasma chamber.

Claims

1. 1. A matchless plasma source comprising: a clock source configured to generate a clock signal; a pulse circuit configured to generate a digital pulse signal, the clock signal having a frequency greater than a frequency of the digital pulse signal; a filter connected to the clock source and the pulse circuit for filtering the clock signal based on the digital pulse signal, the clock signal being filtered and outputting a filtered signal; a driver and amplifier circuit connected to the filter, the driver and amplifier circuit configured to shape the amplitude of the filtered signal and output a multi-level waveform as a shaped waveform; a reactance circuit connected to the driver and amplifier circuit for removing harmonics from the shaped waveform and providing a sinusoidal waveform to the electrodes; A matchless plasma source comprising:

2. 10. The matchless plasma source of claim 1, The matchless plasma source, wherein the clock source is an oscillator circuit, the frequency of the clock signal is a high frequency, and the clock signal is a digital signal.

3. 10. The matchless plasma source of claim 1, The matchless plasma source, wherein the pulse circuit is an oscillator circuit.

4. 10. The matchless plasma source of claim 1, the filter is an AND gate configured to perform an AND operation between the clock signal and the digital pulse signal to filter the clock signal, the filtered signal including a plurality of instances of a first state and a plurality of instances of a second state, each of the plurality of instances of the first state including a pulse train of the clock signal.

5. 10. The matchless plasma source of claim 1, The driver and amplifier circuit a gate driver connected to the filter and including a first gate and a second gate, the first gate connected to the filter and the second gate connected to the filter; an amplifier circuit connected to the gate driver, the amplifier circuit including a direct current (DC) rail having a DC voltage source, an AND gate, a first transistor, and a second transistor, the DC voltage source being connected to the second transistor through the AND gate and the first transistor; A matchless plasma source comprising:

6. 6. The matchless plasma source of claim 5, the first gate is configured to allow the filtered signal to pass, and the second gate is configured to invert the filtered signal and output an inverted signal.

7. 7. The matchless plasma source of claim 6, further comprising: A controller; a signal generator connected to the controller and the AND gate, the controller configured to indicate a shape to the signal generator to facilitate outputting a shaped waveform having the shape, and the DC voltage source configured to output a DC voltage signal; the AND gate is configured to modify the DC voltage signal according to the shaped waveform, the first transistor is configured to turn on and off according to the filtered signal, and the second transistor is configured to turn on and off according to the inverted signal and output an amplified waveform shaped according to the shape of the shaped waveform to provide the shaped waveform.

8. 6. The matchless plasma source of claim 5, the first transistor is connected to the second transistor via an output, and the reactance circuit includes a capacitor connected to the output between the first transistor and the second transistor.

9. 1. A plasma tool comprising: a plasma chamber having an electrode; a matchless plasma source connected to the electrode, a clock source configured to generate a clock signal; a pulse circuit configured to generate a digital pulse signal, the clock signal having a frequency greater than a frequency of the digital pulse signal; a filter connected to the clock source and the pulse circuit for filtering the clock signal based on the digital pulse signal, the clock signal being filtered and outputting a filtered signal; a driver and amplifier circuit connected to the filter, the driver and amplifier circuit configured to shape the amplitude of the filtered signal and output a multi-level waveform as a shaped waveform; a reactance circuit connected to the driver and amplifier circuit for removing harmonics from the shaped waveform and providing a sinusoidal waveform to the electrode; A plasma tool comprising:

10. 10. The plasma tool of claim 9, A plasma tool, wherein the clock source is an oscillator circuit, the frequency of the clock signal is a high frequency, and the clock signal is a digital signal.

11. 10. The plasma tool of claim 9, The plasma tool, wherein the pulse circuit is an oscillator circuit.

12. 10. The plasma tool of claim 9, the filter is an AND gate configured to perform an AND operation between the clock signal and the digital pulse signal to filter the clock signal, the filtered signal including a plurality of instances of a first state and a plurality of instances of a second state, each of the plurality of instances of the first state including a pulse train of the clock signal.

13. 10. The plasma tool of claim 9, The driver and amplifier circuit a gate driver connected to the filter and including a first gate and a second gate, the first gate connected to the filter and the second gate connected to the filter; an amplifier circuit connected to the gate driver, the amplifier circuit including a direct current (DC) rail having a DC voltage source, an AND gate, a first transistor, and a second transistor, the DC voltage source being connected to the second transistor through the AND gate and the first transistor; A plasma tool comprising:

14. 14. The plasma tool of claim 13, The plasma tool, wherein the first gate is configured to allow the filtered signal to pass, and the second gate is configured to invert the filtered signal and output an inverted signal.

15. 15. The plasma tool of claim 14, further comprising: A controller; a signal generator connected to the controller and the AND gate, the controller configured to indicate a shape to the signal generator to facilitate outputting a shaped waveform having the shape, and the DC voltage source configured to output a DC voltage signal; the AND gate is configured to modify the DC voltage signal according to the shaped waveform, the first transistor is configured to turn on and off according to the filtered signal, and the second transistor is configured to turn on and off according to the inverted signal and output an amplified waveform shaped according to the shape of the shaped waveform to provide the shaped waveform.

16. 14. The plasma tool of claim 13, 1. A plasma tool, wherein the first transistor is connected to the second transistor via an output, and the reactance circuit includes a capacitor connected to the output between the first transistor and the second transistor.

17. 10. The plasma tool of claim 9, A plasma tool wherein the electrode is a radio frequency coil and the matchless plasma source and the plasma chamber are mismatched.

18. 1. A method comprising: generating a clock signal; generating a digital pulse signal, the clock signal having a frequency greater than a frequency of the digital pulse signal; filtering the clock signal based on the digital pulse signal to output a filtered signal; shaping the amplitude of the filtered signal and outputting a multi-level waveform as a shaped waveform; removing harmonics from the shaped waveform to provide a sinusoidal waveform to the electrodes; A method comprising:

19. 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the filtering step comprises performing an AND operation between the clock signal and the digital pulse signal, the filtered signal comprising a plurality of instances of a first state and a plurality of instances of a second state, each of the plurality of instances of the first state comprising a pulse train of the clock signal.

20. 20. The method of claim 18, The method, wherein the frequency of the clock signal is a high frequency and the clock signal is a digital signal.

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