Magnetic field enhanced plasma etch reactor

Assignee: Applied Materials Inc

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Filing: 1987-12-18

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Granted: —

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Expires: 2007-12-18

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Abstract

Abstract A magnetic field enhanced single wafer plasma etch reactor (60) is disclosed. The features of the reactor include an electrically-controlled stepped magnetic field for providing high rate uniform etching at high pressures; temperature controlled reactor surfaces including heated anode surfaces (walls and gas manifold) and a cooled wafer supporting pedestal/cathode (70,72); and a unitary wafer exchange mechanism (74) comprising wafer lift pins (79) which extend through the pedestal and a wafer clamp ring (78). The lift pins and clamp ring are moved vertically by a one-axis lift mechanism (140) to accept the wafer from a co-operating external robot blade (76), clamp the wafer to the pedestal and return the wafer to the blade. The electrode cooling combines water cooling for the body of the electrode (70) and a thermal conductivity-enhancing gas interface between the wafer and electrode for keeping the wafer surface cooled despite the high power densities applied to the electrode. A gas feed-through device (114, 175, 176) applies the cooling gas to the RF powered electrode (72) without breakdown of the gas. Protective coatings/layers (81,83) of materials such as quartz are provided for surfaces such as the clamp ring and gas manifold. The combination of these features provides a wide pressure regime, high etch rate, high throughput single wafer etcher wich provides uniformity, directionality and selectivity at high gas pressure, operates cleanly and incorporates in-situ self-cleaning capability.

Inventors

👤 David Cheng
👤 Dan Maydan
👤 Sasson Somekh
👤 Kenneth R. Stalder
👤 Dana L. Andrews
👤 Mei Chang
👤 John M. White
👤 Jerry Yuen Kui Wong
👤 Vladimir J. Zeitlin
👤 David Nin-Kou Wang

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —

Jurisdiction EP

Data Source google_patents

Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 04:53

CPC Classifications

H; H10; H10P; H10P72/00; H10P72/04; H10P72/0402; H10P72/0418; H10P72/0421; H01; H01J; H01J37/00; H01J37/32; H01J37/32431; H01J37/32458; H01J37/32477; H01J37/32623; H01J37/32733; H01J37/32743; H01J37/32788; H01J37/32798; H01J37/32853; H01J37/32862

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 7

Claim 1

Independent Claim 176 words

A vacuum processing reactor, comprising a housing defining a vacuum chamber therein adapted for processing of a wafer positioned within the chamber, the housing having an opening therein to allow insertion of a horizontally oriented wafer into the chamber, to a first selected position, and removal of the wafer from the chamber; said adaption further comprising: a pedestal assembly having a horizontal upper face for supporting the wafer, said pedestal face being generally aligned with the first selected position; wafer exchange means comprising a clamping ring lying generally parallel to the pedestal and having a vertically oriented axis and a group of generally vertically oriented pins arranged in a circular array of diameter less than the clamp ring diamter, said upper ends of the pins being spaced vertically below said clamping ring; and means for sequentially moving the wafer exchange means upwardly and downwardly to selected positions for removing the wafer from the first selected position, clamping the wafer by the clamping ring to the pedestal and for return of the wafer to the selected position.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 60 words

A reactor as claimed in Claim 1, the wafer exchnage means further comprising a clamping ring having the axis thereof generally parallel to the pedestal or electrode, the group of wafer support pins being arranged in an array of diameter less than the clamping ring diameter, and said clamp ring being spaced vertically above the group of wafer support pins.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 17 words

A reactor as claimed in Claim 2, further comprising means for applying RF energy to the pedestal.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 51 words

A reactor as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 3, further comprising means for cirulating cooling fluid within the pedestal and means for applying gas at a low pressure between the face of the pedestal and a wafer clamp thereto to enhance thermal conductivity between the wafer and the pedestal.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 31 words

A reactor of Claim 4, further comprising means disposed on the exterior of the reactor for heating the internal reactor surfaces to a predetermined temperature for preventing deposits on said surfaces.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 100 words

A reactor as claimed in Claim 4 or Claim 5, further comprising a feed-through device for coupling the cooling gas at low pressure to the powered pedestal without ionization, tcomprising a housing having a gas inlet adapted for receiving the cooling gas and a spaced gas outlet connected to the pedestal, said housing further comprising a pair of internal, closely spaced apertured plates transversely spanning the path o the gas, one of the said plates on the outlet side of the gas flow being connected electrically in common with the pedestal, and the other plate being connected to system ground.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 29 words

A reactor as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 6, further comprising an etch impervious coating of material such as quartz over the gas manifold and clamp ring.

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