Patent · US Expired

Method and equipment for plasma processing

US5401356A · kind A · utility

25Cited by
7References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 31, 1992
Grant dateMar 28, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 31, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01L21/32137
  • WIPO fieldSemiconductors
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The amount of dust particles deposited on a semiconductor wafer during plasma etching or CVD in manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit is decreased by second plasma generating electrode 28 disposed around a lower electrode 15 in a plasma etching chamber 4a. High frequency voltage is applied to the second plasma generating electrode 18 just before the stop of plasma discharge to form a sub-plasma of high density along the outer periphery of the lower electrode 15, there is formed a sub-potential distribution acting to push out negatively charged dust particles stagnating near the main surface of a semiconductor substrate 7 toward the outer periphery of the wafer. The negatively charged dust particles thus pushed out from the vicinity of the main surface of the wafer 7 are moved to the second plasma generating electrode 28 and exhausted by a vacuum pump through an exhaust port 25.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.