Plasma producing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016240351-A1
Application number	US-201615016613-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Feb 13, 2015
Publication date	Aug 18, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A plasma producing apparatus for plasma processing a substrate Includes a chamber having an interior surface, a plasma production device for producing an inductively coupled plasma within the chamber, a substrate support for supporting the substrate during plasma processing, and a Faraday shield disposed within the chamber for shielding at least part of the interior surface from material removed from the substrate by the plasma processing. The plasma production device includes an antenna and a RF power supply for supplying RF power to the antenna with a polarity which is alternated at a frequency of less than or equal to 1000 Hz.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A plasma producing apparatus for plasma processing a substrate comprising:
a chamber having an interior surface; a plasma production device for producing an inductively coupled plasma within the chamber; a substrate support for supporting the substrate during plasma processing; and a Faraday shield disposed within the chamber for shielding at least part of the interior surface from material removed from the substrate by the plasma processing; in which the plasma production device comprises an antenna and a RF power supply for supplying RF power to the antenna with a polarity which is alternated at a frequency of less than or equal to 1000 Hz.

2 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the RF power supply supplies RF power to the antenna with a polarity which is alternated at a frequency of greater than or equal to 0.01 Hz, preferable 0.05 Hz, most preferably 0.1 Hz.

3 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the RF power supply supplies RF power to the antenna with a polarity which is alternated at a frequency of less than or equal to 100 Hz, preferably 25 Hz, most preferably 10 Hz.

4 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the Faraday shield is grounded.

5 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the Faraday shield is a cage.

6 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the Faraday shield comprises a plurality of apertures.

7 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 6 in which the apertures are vertically aligned slots.

8 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 7 in which the antenna is horizontally disposed around the chamber.

9 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the antenna is a single turn coil.

10 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 in which the RF power supply comprises a RF source and a switch which causes the alternation of the polarity of the RF power supplied to the antenna.

11 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a substrate support electrical power supply for electrically biasing the substrate support.

12 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 11 in which the substrate support electrical power supply is a RF power supply for producing a RF bias on the substrate support.

13 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 1 configured for sputter etching the substrate.

14 . A plasma producing apparatus according to claim 13 configured for pre-cleaning the substrate.

15 . A method of plasma processing a substrate comprising:
producing a plasma in a chamber using a plasma production device comprising an antenna and a RF power supply for supplying RF power to the antenna; and plasma processing the substrate; in which: a Faraday shield is disposed within the chamber which shields at least part of an interior surface of the chamber from material removed from the substrate by the plasma processing; and RF power is supplied to the antenna with a polarity which is alternated at a frequency of less than or equal to 1000 Hz.

16 . A method according to claim 15 in which the plasma processing is a sputter etch process.

17 . A method according to claim 16 in which the substrate comprises a semiconductor material having one or more metal layers formed thereon, wherein the sputter etch process removes material from the one or more metal layers.

Assignees

• Spts Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• Burgess Stephen R
• Wilby Anthony Paul
• Widdicks Clive L
• Moncrieff Ian
• Densley P

Classifications

• H10P50/242

  of Group IV materials · CPC title

• H10P72/0421

  for drying etching · CPC title

• H01J2237/335

  Cleaning · CPC title

• H01J37/32477

  characterised by the means for protecting vessels or internal parts, e.g. coatings · CPC title

• H01J37/3211 Primary

  Antennas, e.g. particular shapes of coils · CPC title