Plasma Chamber Port Shutter Contact for Uniform Wafer Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional plasma processing apparatuses face challenges in maintaining uniform plasma distribution due to plasma spreading near the carry-in port, leading to non-uniform processing on substrates, and require large drive mechanisms to crush conductive seals, increasing the apparatus size.
Innovation Solution
A plasma processing apparatus with a shutter and a contact portion formed of conductive material, where the contact portion moves differently than the shutter, allowing for non-contact during movement and contact only when closing, eliminating the need for crushing the seal, thus reducing the drive mechanism size and maintaining plasma uniformity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a shutter moves along the sidewall to open or close the opening, then the carry-in port can be opened for substrate insertion, but plasma spreads to the vicinity of the carry-in port causing deterioration in plasma uniformity
Solution Approach 1:
A contact portion is introduced as an intermediary element between the shutter and the chamber wall. This contact portion is disposed to contact the shutter when the shutter is in the position for closing the opening, providing a localized conductive path without requiring the entire shutter to be conductive or to crush a seal during movement.
2Reliability
If a conductive seal is crushed by the shutter to ensure electrical connection, then electrical continuity is maintained, but the drive mechanism size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the electrical connection function from the shutter's movement mechanism. Instead of requiring the shutter to crush a conductive seal during its travel, the contact portion provides the electrical connection at the stationary chamber wall, separating the movement function from the electrical connection function.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than making the moving shutter conductive and having it crush a seal to maintain connection, the invention makes the stationary contact portion conductive. This inverts the approach: instead of the moving part providing conductivity through crushing, the stationary part provides conductivity through contact.
Data Source
AI summary
A plasma processing apparatus of the present disclosure includes a chamber, a shutter, and a contact portion. The chamber has an opening in a sidewall thereof so as to carry a wafer W into the chamber through the opening, and performs therein a predetermined processing on the wafer W by plasma of a processing gas supplied thereinto. The shutter opens or closes the opening by moving along the sidewall of the chamber. The contact portion is formed of a conductive material, and is not in contact with the shutter while the shutter is moving. When the shutter is in the position for closing the opening, the contact portion is displaced in a direction different from the direction of movement of the shutter to come into contact with the shutter.