| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 156345250 | For endpoint detection | 16 |
| 20080216956 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - To provide a plasma processing apparatus using a measuring method of a film thickness of a material to be processed, which method is capable of accurately measuring an actual residual film amount and an etching depth of the layer to be processed. The plasma processing apparatus includes: a detector | 09-11-2008 |
| 20080223522 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention provides a plasma processing chamber mounted with a function capable of determining the state of a temperature rise in a processing chamber even if a thermometer is not mounted in the processing chamber. In a plasma processing apparatus including: a processing chamber for subjecting a sample to be processed to plasma processing; means for supplying the processing chamber with gas; exhaust means for reducing pressure in the processing chamber; a high-frequency power source for generating plasma; and an electrode on which the sample to be processed is placed, there is provided a plasma emission monitor for determining an end point of temperature raise discharge and means for determining an end point of temperature raise discharge, both of which are used for determining an end point of temperature raise discharge performed before the plasma processing. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20090050271 | MASK TRIMMING - A method for etching a dielectric layer is provided. A patterned mask with mask features is formed over a dielectric layer. The mask has isolated areas and dense areas of the mask features. The mask is trimmed by a plurality of cycles, where each cycle includes depositing a deposition layer, and selectively etching the deposition layer and the patterned mask. The selective etching selectively trims the isolated areas of the mask with respect to the dense areas of the mask. The dielectric layer is etched using the thus trimmed mask. The mask is removed. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20090211706 | ETCHING ENDPOINT DETERMINATION METHOD - A microscopic change in a luminous intensity occurring near an etching endpoint is accurately detected, whereby the endpoint of etching is quickly determined. An etching endpoint determination method for determining an endpoint of etching processing in a plasma etching apparatus that introduces a processing gas into a vacuum chamber, produces plasma by feeding high-frequency energy to a introduced processing gas, and uses the produced plasma to perform plasma processing on a workpiece stored in the chamber includes: a step of sampling light of a pre-set wavelength from light emitted by the plasma produced in the vacuum chamber, acquiring as time-sequential data the luminous intensity of the sampled light of the specific wavelength, and computing a regression line on the basis of the acquired time-sequential data; and a step of computing distances in a time-base direction between the regression line and the time-sequential data which are obtained at the first step. An endpoint of etching processing is determined based in the distances in the time-base direction obtained at the second step. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090277584 | APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING THE ENDPOINT OF A CLEANING OR CONDITIONING PROCESS IN A PLASMA PROCESSING SYSTEM - An apparatus for determining an endpoint of a process by measuring a thickness of a layer is provided. The layer is disposed on the surface by a prior process. The apparatus includes means for providing a sensor that is coplanar with the surface, wherein the sensor is configured to measure the thickness. The apparatus also includes means for exposing the plasma chamber to a plasma, wherein the thickness is changed by the exposing, and means for determining the thickness as a function of time. The apparatus further includes means for ascertaining a steady state condition in the thickness, the steady state condition being characterized by a substantially stable measurement of the thickness, a start of the steady state condition representing the endpoint. | 11-12-2009 |
| 20100084094 | Pulsed Etching Cooling - In an apparatus and method of vapor etching, a sample (S) to be etched is located in a main chamber 107 from which the atmosphere inside is evacuated. Etching gas is input into the main chamber 107 for a first period of time. Thereafter, the etching gas is evacuated from the main chamber 107 and cooling/purging gas is input into the main chamber for a second interval of time. Thereafter, the cooling/purging gas is evacuated from the main chamber 107. Desirably, the steps of inputting the etching gas into the main chamber 107 for the first period of time, evacuating the etching gas from the main chamber, inputting the cooling/purging gas into the main chamber 107 for the second period of time, and evacuating the cooling/purging gas from the main chamber are repeated until samples have been etched to a desired extent. | 04-08-2010 |
| 20100089532 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING ACCURATE END POINT DETECTION - A plasma processing apparatus for generating a plasma of a processing gas by applying a high frequency power to an electrode provided in a processing chamber and processing a substrate using the plasma is provided. The plasma processing apparatus includes an optical data detection unit, a data storage unit and a control unit. The optical data detection unit detects optical data when plasma processing the substrate. The data storage unit stores correlation data representing a correlation between type data corresponding to a plurality of types classified based on a type of a mask or a film to be processed disposed on the substrate and optical data to be detected by the optical data detection unit, and end point detection setting data sets, each of the setting data sets serving to detect a plasma processing end point and corresponding to one of the types. | 04-15-2010 |
| 20100224322 | ENDPOINT DETECTION FOR A REACTOR CHAMBER USING A REMOTE PLASMA CHAMBER - An analysis chamber coupled to a processing chamber includes an actively switchable capacitive-inductive coupling apparatus providing excitation in a capacitively coupled mode and an inductively coupled mode. | 09-09-2010 |
| 20120018094 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS AND PLASMA PROCESSING METHOD - A plasma processing apparatus for applying an etching processing to a wafer by using at least two steps of the etching processing which operate with plasma formed within a pressure-reduced processing chamber, the wafer being located within the processing chamber inside a vacuum vessel, and having a mask on a silicon-composed substrate and a film structure, the film structure including processing-target films located under the mask, wherein the plasma processing apparatus is equipped with a function for processing another different wafer in such a manner that a processing condition at a precedent-stage step of the two steps of the etching processing in the processing of the different wafer is adjusted based on a result obtained by detecting a time which has elapsed until termination of a subsequent-stage step of the two steps of the etching processing. | 01-26-2012 |
| 20120085494 | Plasma Etching Apparatus - A plasma etching apparatus includes a vacuum processing chamber for performing plasma processing on a workpiece, a gas introducer, a high frequency power feeder, a spectroscope, and an arithmetic unit for determining an endpoint of etching of the workpiece. The arithmetic unit includes a regression line computing unit for computing a regression line on the basis of time-sequential data of luminous intensity of a specific wavelength sampled by the spectroscope, a distance computing unit for computing a distance from the time-sequential data to the regression line, a computing unit for calculating a distance in a time-base direction by computing a slope of the regression line, and the distance from the time-sequential data to the regression line, computed by the distance computing unit, and an endpoint determiner for outputting an endpoint determination signal on the basis of the distance in the time-base direction computed by the computing unit. | 04-12-2012 |
| 20120291952 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AN ETCH PROCESS - A method and apparatus for monitoring an etch process. The etch process may be monitored using measurement information (e.g., critical dimensions (CD), layer thickness, and the like) provided ex-situ with respect to the etch process in combination with in-situ monitoring (e.g., spectroscopy, interferometry, scatterometry, reflectometry, and the like) performed during the etch process. The ex-situ measurement information in combination with the in-situ monitoring may be used to monitor for example, an endpoint of an etch process, an etch depth profile of a feature formed on a substrate, fault detection of an integrated circuit manufacturing process, and the like. | 11-22-2012 |
| 20130133832 | SIMULATION METHOD, SIMULATION PROGRAM, AND SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING APPARATUS - The simulation method is for predicting a damage amount due to ultraviolet rays in manufacturing a semiconductor device. The method includes: calculating particle density by performing simulation based on a differential equation for the particle density; calculating emission intensity at each wavelength in a visible wavelength region based on the calculated particle density; obtaining an electron energy distribution function by comparing the calculated emission intensity at each wavelength in the visible wavelength region with an actually detected emission spectrum in the visible wavelength region with reference to information on emission species and an emission wavelength in a target manufacturing process; predicting an emission spectrum in an ultraviolet wavelength region by using the electron energy distribution function and a reaction cross-sectional area relating to the emission species; and predicting a damage amount due to the ultraviolet rays based on the predicted emission spectrum in the ultraviolet wavelength region. | 05-30-2013 |
| 20140174658 | ETCHING APPARATUS AND METHODS - A method is for etching the whole width of a substrate to expose buried features. The method includes etching a face of a substrate across its width to achieve substantially uniform removal of material; illuminating the etched face during the etch process; applying edge detection techniques to light reflected or scattered from the face to detect the appearances of buried features; and modifying the etch in response to the detection of the buried feature. An etching apparatus for etching substrate across its width to expose buried is also disclosed. | 06-26-2014 |
| 20150020970 | PLASMA PROCESSING METHOD AND APPARATUS - Plasma processing of plural substrates is performed in a plasma processing apparatus, which is provided with a plasma processing chamber having an antenna electrode and a lower electrode for placing and retaining the plural substrates in turn within the plasma processing chamber, a gas feeder for feeding processing gas into the processing chamber, a vacuum pump for discharging gas from the processing chamber via a vacuum valve, and a solenoid coil for forming a magnetic field within the processing chamber. At least one of the plural substrates is placed on the lower electrode, and the processing gas is fed into the processing chamber. RF power is fed to the antenna electrode via a matching network to produce a plasma within the processing chamber in which a magnetic field has been formed by the solenoid coil. This placing of at least one substrate and this feeding of the processing gas are then repeated until the plasma processing of all of the plural substrates is completed. An end of seasoning is determined when a parameter including an internal pressure of the processing chamber has become stable to a steady value with plasma processing time. | 01-22-2015 |
| 20150371882 | SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING APPARATUS - A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes a chamber, a view port window on a sidewall of the chamber and configured to receive an optical emission spectroscopy (OES); and an air distributor located between the view port window and an inner space of the chamber. The air distributor includes a hollow region aligned with the transparent window and configured to generate an air curtain in the hollow region to isolate the view port from the inner space. | 12-24-2015 |
| 20160126068 | DIAGNOSIS SYSTEM FOR PULSED PLASMA - A diagnosis system for pulsed plasma includes an optical emission sensor (OES) to receive light generated the pulsed plasma, the pulsed plasma having been generated in accordance with a pulse signal, a digitizer to synchronize the electrical signal with the pulse signal, and an analyzer to analyze the synchronized electrical signal. | 05-05-2016 |
