GAS FLOW PATH STRUCTURE AND SUBSTRATE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20100243166A1
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
• Original Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
• Inventors: Hayashi, Daisuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,623,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 156/345.340
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32568 Relative arrangement or disposition of electrodes; moving means

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a depressurizable processing chamber 11; a shaft 26 supporting a facing electrode 24 provided within the processing chamber 11 while allowing the facing electrode 24 to be movable with respect to a mounting electrode 12; a first ring-shaped bellows 31 concentrically installed at an outer peripheral portion of the shaft 26; and a second bellows 32 concentrically installed at an outer peripheral portion of the first bellows 31. The first bellows 31 absorbs a displacement of the facing electrode 24 with respect to a wall surface 13 at a penetration portion where the shaft 26 penetrates the wall surface 13 of the processing chamber 11, and seals the inside of the processing chamber 11 against the ambient atmosphere around the shaft 26. A ring-shaped gas flow path 35 is formed by the first bellows 31 and the second bellows 32.

Claims

1. A gas flow path structure of a substrate processing apparatus that performs a plasma process on a processing target substrate by plasma excited from a processing gas supplied between a mounting electrode and a facing electrode via a gas flow path, the substrate processing apparatus including a depressurizable processing chamber, the mounting electrode installed within the processing chamber and configured to mount the processing target substrate, and the facing electrode installed so as to face the mounting electrode, the gas flow path structure comprising:

a supporting member configured to support either one of the mounting electrode and the facing electrode while allowing the one electrode to be movable with respect to the other;

a first displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall having a ring shape and installed at an outer peripheral portion of the supporting member so as to be concentric with the supporting member, the first partition wall serving to absorb a displacement (moving distance) of the one electrode with respect to a wall surface of the processing chamber at a penetration portion where the supporting member penetrates the wall surface and serving to seal an inside of the processing chamber against an ambient atmosphere around the supporting member; and

a second displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall having a ring shape and installed at an outer peripheral portion of the first displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall so as to be concentric with the first displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall,

wherein a first ring-shaped gas flow path is formed by the first displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall and the second displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall.

2. The gas flow path structure of claim 1, wherein a third or more displacement-absorbing pressure partition walls having a ring shape are further installed at an outer peripheral portion of the second displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall so as to be concentric with the second displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall, so that a second or more ring-shaped gas flow paths are formed by each pair of adjacent displacement-absorbing pressure partition walls outside the second displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall.

3. The gas flow path structure of claim 1, wherein a guide member, which suppresses bending of the first displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall in a direction perpendicular to a lengthwise direction thereof, is installed so as to face an outer peripheral portion of the first displacement-absorbing pressure partition wall.

4. The gas flow path structure of claim 1, wherein the displacement-absorbing pressure partition walls have a circular, an oval, or a rectangular cross section.

5. The gas flow path structure of claim 1, wherein the displacement-absorbing pressure partition walls are bellows.

6. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:

a depressurizable processing chamber;

a mounting electrode installed within the processing chamber and configured to mount a processing target substrate;

a facing electrode installed so as to face the mounting electrode; and

a gas flow path structure, as claimed in claim 1, that supplies a processing gas between the mounting electrode and the facing electrode,

wherein plasma is excited from the processing gas supplied between the mounting electrode and the facing electrode, and a plasma process is performed on the processing target substrate by the plasma.