Reactive sputter deposition plasma reactor and process using plural ion shower grids
First Claim
1. A reactive sputter deposition process, comprising:
- providing a reactor chamber and a set of plural parallel ion shower grids that divide said chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region, each of said ion shower grids having plural orifices in mutual registration from grid to grid, each orifice being oriented in a non-parallel direction relative to a surface plane of the respective grid;
placing a workpiece in said process region, said workpiece having a workpiece surface generally facing the surface plane of nearest one of said ion shower grids;
sputtering deposition precursor species from a sputter target comprising a semiconductor species in said ion generation region;
applying RF plasma source power to said ion generation region so as to generate a plasma of the deposition precursor species sputtered from said target;
applying successive grid potentials to successive ones of said grids to create a flux of ions through at least some of said plural grids; and
furnishing a gas species into said reactor chamber for combining with said semiconductor atoms to form molecules that deposit on said workpiece surface.
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Abstract
A reactive sputter deposition process is carried out in a reactor chamber having a set of plural parallel ion shower grids that divide the chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region, each of the ion shower grids having plural orifices in mutual registration from grid to grid, each orifice being oriented in a non-parallel direction relative to a surface plane of the respective grid. A workpiece is placed in the process region, the workpiece having a workpiece surface generally facing the surface plane of nearest one of the ion shower grids. The process includes sputtering deposition precursor species from a sputter target comprising a semiconductor species in the ion generation region, applying RF plasma source power to the ion generation region so as to generate a plasma of the deposition precursor species sputtered from the target, applying successive grid potentials to successive ones of the grids to create a flux of ions through at least some of the plural grids, and furnishing a gas species into the reactor chamber for combining with the semiconductor atoms to form molecules that deposit on the workpiece surface.
140 Citations
79 Claims
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1. A reactive sputter deposition process, comprising:
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providing a reactor chamber and a set of plural parallel ion shower grids that divide said chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region, each of said ion shower grids having plural orifices in mutual registration from grid to grid, each orifice being oriented in a non-parallel direction relative to a surface plane of the respective grid;
placing a workpiece in said process region, said workpiece having a workpiece surface generally facing the surface plane of nearest one of said ion shower grids;
sputtering deposition precursor species from a sputter target comprising a semiconductor species in said ion generation region;
applying RF plasma source power to said ion generation region so as to generate a plasma of the deposition precursor species sputtered from said target;
applying successive grid potentials to successive ones of said grids to create a flux of ions through at least some of said plural grids; and
furnishing a gas species into said reactor chamber for combining with said semiconductor atoms to form molecules that deposit on said workpiece surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79)
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Specification