Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

• US 7,147,747 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2003
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tanaka, Junichi, Miya, Go, Yamamoto, Hideyuki, Kitsunai, Hiroyuki, Masuda, Toshio
• Primary Examiner(s): Kackar, Ram N.
• Application Number:
  US10/377,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20040173309A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,379 Days
• Field of Search: 438/7, 438/8, 438/9, 438/710, 216/59, 216/60, 216/67, 156/345.24, 156/345.25, 118/712, 204/192.33, 204/298.03, 204/298.32
• US Class Current: 156/345.25
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/73 using plasma burners or torches
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32935 Monitoring and controlling tubes by information coming from the object and/or discharge
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32963 End-point detection
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67253 Process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 1/0037 by spectrometry

Abstract

A plasma processing apparatus having a process chamber in which an object to be processed is subjected to plasma processing includes a light-receiving part for a spectrometer unit, an arithmetic unit, a database, a determination unit and an apparatus controller. The determination unit determines a condition in the processing chamber that an end point of seasoning is reached. The determination of the condition is performed so that one or more differences between one or more output signals derived from a batch of plasma emission data by multivariate analysis and one or more output signals derived from a preceding batch of plasma emission data are found, an average value of the differences in one batch, a difference between a maximum and a minimum of the differences in one batch and a standard deviation of the differences in one batch are determined, and the values are compared with a preset threshold.

Claims

1. A plasma processing apparatus having a process chamber in which substrates are subjected to plasma processing in lots comprising;

a light-receiving part for monitoring a plasma emission in said process chamber;

a spectrometer unit for performing a spectrometry on said plasma emission and to convert the same into a multi-channel signal;

an arithmetic unit for performing principal component analysis on the multi-channel signal for each substrate to obtain an average of principal component scores (P_ij for j-th substrate of i-th lot);

a database for storing a filter vector for obtaining the principal component scores;

first means to determine a difference (D_i,j=P_i,j−

P_i-1,j) of average principal component scores of a substrate in a lot compared to that of a substrate in an identical position in the previous lot;

second means to determine an average, a difference of minimum and maximum, and a standard deviation of (D_ij) for all substrates in a lot;

third means to compare the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation, as determined, with preset thresholds to determine an end point of seasoning; and

a controller for controlling an operation of said plasma processing apparatus.

2. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said arithmetic unit converts the multi-channel signal for enabling analysis utilizing a multivariate analysis.

3. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said arithmetic unit converts the multi-channel signal utilizing the filter vector stored in said database for enabling the principal component analysis.

4. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said arithmetic unit converts the multi-channel signal so as to perform the principal component analysis.

5. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said arithmetic unit obtains principal components scores for at least one of a first principal component, a second principal component, and a third principal component.

6. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the second means determines the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation based upon at least one of the first principal component, the second principal component, and the third principal component.

7. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the second means to determine the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation performs the respective determination for the first principal component.

8. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the second means to determine the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation performs the respective determination for the second principal component.

9. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the second means to determine the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation performs the respective determination for the third principal component.

10. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the third means to compare includes means for comparing the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation with a plurality of the preset thresholds to calculate a point for the average, the difference of minimum and maximum and the standard deviation, and for comparing a sum of the points with a preset threshold.

11. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said arithmetic unit converts the multi-channel signal for enabling analysis utilizing a multivariate analysis.

12. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said arithmetic unit converts the multi-channel signal utilizing the filter vector stored in said database for enabling the principal component analysis.

13. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said arithmetic unit converts the multi-channel signal so as to perform the principal component analysis.

14. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said arithmetic unit obtains principal components scores for at least one of a first principal component, a second principal component, and a third principal component.

15. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the second means determines the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation based upon at least one of the first principal component, the second principal component, and the third principal component.

16. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the second means to determine the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation performs the respective determination for the first principal component.

17. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the second means to determine the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation performs the respective determination for the second principal component.

18. The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the second means to determine the average, the difference of minimum and maximum, and the standard deviation performs the respective determination for the third principal component.