Nanosecond pulser RF isolation for plasma systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12456604-B2
Application number	US-202117214772-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2021
Priority date	Dec 24, 2019
Publication date	Oct 28, 2025
Grant date	Oct 28, 2025

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention include a plasma system. The plasma system includes a plasma chamber; an RF driver configured to drive bursts into the plasma chamber with an RF frequency; a nanosecond pulser configured to drive pulses into the plasma chamber with a pulse repetition frequency, the pulse repetition frequency being less than the RF frequency; a high pass filter disposed between the RF driver and the plasma chamber; and a low pass filter disposed between the nanosecond pulser and the plasma chamber.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1 . A plasma system comprising:
a plasma chamber comprising a plurality of walls and a wafer support, when a plasma is created within the plasma chamber a wall-plasma sheath is formed between the plasma and the at least one of the plurality of walls, and a wafer-plasma sheath is formed between the plasma and a wafer disposed on the wafer support; an RF driver that drives RF bursts into the plasma chamber with an RF frequency greater than about 1 Mhz; a nanosecond pulser that drives pulses into the plasma chamber with a pulse repetition frequency that is less than the RF frequency and peak voltages greater than about 1 kV, where the pulses produce by the nanosecond pulser are different than the RF bursts produced by the RF driver; a high pass filter disposed between the RF driver and the plasma chamber that allows the RF bursts to pass into the chamber; and a low pass filter disposed between the nanosecond pulser and the plasma chamber that allows pulses with a pulse repetition frequency less than 1 Mhz into the chamber.

2 . The plasma system according to claim 1 , wherein a capacitance of the wafer-plasma sheath is less than about 1 nF.

3 . The plasma system according to claim 1 , wherein a capacitance of the wall-plasma sheath is at least about ten times greater than a capacitance of the wafer-plasma sheath.

4 . The plasma system according to claim 1 , wherein the high pass filter comprises series capacitance that is less than 10 nF.

5 . The plasma system according to claim 4 , wherein a capacitor has a capacitance less than about 500 pF.

6 . The plasma system according to claim 1 , wherein the low pass filter comprises an inductor with an inductance less than about 10 nH.

7 . The plasma system according to claim 1 , wherein the low pass filter comprises an inductor with a stray capacitance less than about 5 pF.

8 . A plasma system comprising:
a plasma chamber comprising a plurality of walls and a wafer support, when a plasma is created within the plasma chamber a wall-plasma sheath is formed between the plasma and the at least one of the plurality of walls, and a wafer-plasma sheath is formed between the plasma and a wafer disposed on the wafer support, wherein a capacitance of the wafer-plasma sheath is less than about 1 nF; an RF driver that drives RF bursts into the plasma chamber with an RF frequency greater than about 1 Mhz; a nanosecond pulser that drives pulses into the plasma chamber with a pulse repetition frequency that is less than the RF frequency and peak voltages greater than about 1 kV, where the pulses produce by the nanosecond pulser are different than the RF bursts produced by the RF driver; a high pass filter disposed between the RF driver and the plasma chamber that allows the RF bursts to pass into the chamber, wherein the high pass filter comprises series capacitance that is less than 10 nF; and a low pass filter disposed between the nanosecond pulser and the plasma chamber that allows pulses with a pulse repetition frequency less than 1 Mhz into the chamber, wherein the low pass filter comprises an inductor with an inductance less than about 10 nH.

Assignees

• Eagle Harbor Tech Inc

Inventors

• Ziemba Timothy
• Miller Kenneth

Classifications

• H01J37/32183

  Matching circuits · CPC title

• H03H7/0115

  comprising only inductors and capacitors (H03H7/075, H03H7/09, H03H7/12, H03H7/13 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01J37/32174

  Circuits specially adapted for controlling the RF discharge · CPC title

• H01J37/32146 Primary

  Amplitude modulation, includes pulsing · CPC title