Plasma processing apparatus and method

• US 6,590,179 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2001
• Issued: 07/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Tanaka, Junichi, Nishio, Ryoji, Kanno, Seiichiro, Yamamoto, Hideyuki, Kitsunai, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Paschall, Mark
• Application Number:
  US09/791,732
• Publication Number:
  US 20020104832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 219/121.54, 219/121.57, 219/121.4, 219/121.41, 219/121.43, 216/60-67, 700/121, 156/345, 156/623, 156/626, 439/9, 364/148, 364/468, 364/151
• US Class Current: 219/121.43
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32935 Monitoring and controlling tubes by information coming from the object and/or discharge
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67253 Process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring

Abstract

A plasma processing apparatus having a process chamber to process specimens, a status detecting means for detecting the internal processing status of said process chamber and outputting a plurality of signals, and signal converting means for extracting an arbitrary number of signal processing filters from a signal filter database using a signal filter selecting means and creating an arbitrary number of device status signals. The signal converting means creates fewer effective device status signals of a time series from said output signals.

Claims

1. A plasma processing apparatus, comprising:

a process chamber to house and process one or more specimens;

a plasma generator to generate plasma in the process chamber;

a database containing a plurality of signal filters;

a controller to control a status of each device on the specimens and to control process conditions of the specimens;

a status detecting unit to detect the status of each device on the specimens inside of the process chamber;

a signal filter selector to select one or more signal filters from the database according to the process conditions of the specimens; and

a signal converting unit arranged to create as many device status signals from the status detecting unit as the signal filters selected;

wherein the signal filters can be replaced each time a process condition changes.

2. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive the device status signals and control the status of each device on the specimens according to the device status signals.

3. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a display unit arranged to display the transition of the device status signals over a designated time period.

4. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the status detecting unit is provided with means for dividing plasma light by wavelengths.

5. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the status detecting unit is provided with means for detecting electrical states of arbitrary points in the process chamber including the plasma.

6. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 5, further comprising means for dividing said electrical status signals by frequencies.

7. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the status detecting unit is adapted to detect reflected power components when the plasma generator is provided to supply power to the process chamber.

8. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means for adding optical signals to the plasma;

wherein the status detecting unit is adapted to detect signals which change while the optical signals pass through the plasma or when the optical signals are reflected by the plasma.

9. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means for adding electrical signals to the plasma;

wherein the status detecting unit is adapted to detect signals which change while the electrical signals pass through the plasma or when the electrical signals are reflected by the plasma.

10. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein eigen vectors obtained by a principal component analysis of the result of specimen processing are used as the signal filters.

11. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein eigen vectors obtained by a principal component analysis of the result of specimen processing are combined into a vector and used as the signal filters.

12. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the database is updated by the result of processing of designated specimens.

13. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 12, wherein the database is updated by data obtained by processing selected specimens in a preset process sequence.

14. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 12, further comprising a mechanism provided to monitor how the database is updated.

15. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the status detecting unit comprises multiple detectors arranged to detect the status of each device on the specimens, and a selected one of the detectors is disable or removed after the database is created.

16. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the database is obtained or updated by an external device.

17. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising means for selecting one or more signal filters according to tags such as numbers or names assigned to the signal filters, wherein the selected signal filters are used to display, output, and control the device status signals of the signal converting unit.

18. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a list of pre-named device conditions and a mechanism of selecting a device condition from the list in response to a corresponding device status signal and providing a visual display of a selected device condition.

19. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the number of device status signals to be output or displayed varies according to the status of the devices on the specimens.

20. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the number of device status signals to be output or displayed varies in response to requests from external device.

21. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a judging mechanism arranged to judge whether each device status signal is in a preset range and an operating status according to the result of judgment.

22. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 21, further comprising means of selecting types of specimens to be processed among specimens requiring different levels of processing accuracies.

23. A specimen manufacturing system using the plasma processing apparatus in accordance with any of claims 1 to 22 to manufacture specimens.

24. Semiconductor devices created from specimens by the plasma processing apparatus in accordance with any of claims 1 to 22.

25. An LCD apparatus created from specimens by the plasma processing apparatus in accordance with any of claims 1 to 22.

27. A plasma processing apparatus in accordance with claim 13, further comprising a mechanism to monitor how the database is updated.

26. A plasma processing method of a plasma processing apparatus comprising a process chamber, a gas supply unit for supplying a process gas to the process chamber, a controller for controlling device states according to process conditions of a specimen in the process chamber, a database containing a plurality of signal filters, and a plasma generator for generating plasma in the process chamber, said plasma processing method comprising the steps of:

detecting a processing status of the process chamber and outputting a plurality of signals;

extracting or replacing an arbitrary number of signal filters from the database depending on the process conditions of the specimen;

converting said signals to an arbitrary number of device status signals, and generating the device status signals having time series which are less than said signals; and

controlling the device states according to the device status signals.

28. A plasma processing method in accordance with claim 26, wherein the specimen corresponds to a single wafer, and the process condition of the single wafer comprises a plurality of sub-conditions, in which the signal filters can be replaced for each sub-condition.

29. A plasma processing method in accordance with claim 26, wherein the signal filters can be replaced for a cleaning or aging process performed between etching processes.