Method of operating a plasma reactor chamber with respect to two plasma parameters selected from a group comprising ion density, wafer voltage, etch rate and wafer current, by controlling chamber parameters of source power and bias power

• US 7,521,370 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2006
• Issued: 04/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: Hoffman, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, KIN CHAN
• Application Number:
  US11/508,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20060283835A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 438/706, 438/710, 438/712, 438/714, 216/59, 216/61, 216/67, 156/345.24, 156/345.25, 156/345.28, 156/345, 156/43
• US Class Current: 438/714
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32174 Circuits specially adapted for controlling the RF discharge
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32935 Monitoring and controlling tubes by information coming from the object and/or discharge

Abstract

A plasma reactor chamber is characterized by performing the following steps: (a) for each one of the chamber parameters, ramping the level of the one chamber parameter while sampling RF electrical parameters at an RF bias power input to the wafer support pedestal and computing from each sample of the RF electrical parameters the values of the plasma parameters, and storing the values with the corresponding levels of the one chamber parameter as corresponding chamber parameter data; (b) for each one of the chamber parameters, deducing, from the corresponding chamber parameter data, a single variable function for each of the plasma parameters having the one chamber parameter as an independent variable.

Claims

1. A method of operating a plasma reactor chamber with respect to two plasma parameters selected from the group consisting of ion density, wafer voltage, etch rate and wafer current, by controlling chamber parameters of source power and bias power, said method comprising:

characterizing the reactor chamber by performing the steps of;

a. for each one of said chamber parameters, ramping the level of the one chamber parameter while sampling RF electrical parameters at an RF bias power input to a wafer support pedestal and computing from each sample of said RF electrical parameters the values of said plasma parameters, and storing said values with the corresponding levels of said one chamber parameter as corresponding chamber parameter data;

b. for each one of said chamber parameters, deducing, from the corresponding chamber parameter data, a single variable function for each of said plasma parameters having said one chamber parameter as an independent variable;

c. constructing combinations of said functions and from said combinations, constructing surfaces defining concurrent values of said chamber parameters, each respective surface corresponding to a respective constant value of one of said plasma parameters, and storing said surfaces;

controlling a plasma in the chamber during processing of a production wafer in the chamber in accordance with user-selected values of each of said plasma parameters by performing the following steps;

a. for each one of said plasma parameters, fetching a relevant surface of constant value corresponding to the user-selected value of said one plasma parameter, and determining an intersection of the relevant surfaces which defines a target value of source power and bias power; and

b. setting said source power and bias power in said chamber, respectively, to the target value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sampling RF electrical parameters at an RF bias power input to said wafer support pedestal comprises:

sensing an input impedance, an input current and an input voltage to a transmission line coupled between a bias power impedance match circuit and an electrode within the wafer pedestal.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of computing from each sample of said RF electrical parameters the values of plural plasma parameters is carried out separately for plasma parameters of ion density, wafer voltage and etch rate.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of computing from each sample of said RF electrical parameters the values of plural plasma parameters comprises:

computing a junction admittance of a junction between said transmission line and the electrode within the wafer pedestal from said input impedance, input current and input voltage and from parameters of the transmission line.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of computing from each sample of said RF electrical parameters the values of plural plasma parameters further comprises:

providing shunt electrical quantities of a shunt capacitance between the electrode and a ground plane;

providing load electrical quantities of a load capacitance between the electrode and a wafer on the pedestal.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of computing from each sample of said RF electrical parameters the values of plural plasma parameters further comprises:

computing said etch rate, plasma ion density and wafer voltage from said junction admittance, said shunt electrical quantities, said load electrical quantities and a frequency of RF bias power applied to said electrode.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said parameters of said transmission line comprise a length of said transmission line, a characteristic impedance of said transmission line and a complex loss factor of said transmission line.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said shunt electrical quantities are computed from the size of an electrode-to-ground gap length, an area of said wafer, an electrode-to-ground dielectric constant and an electrode-to-ground conductive loss component.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said load electrical quantities are computed from an electrode-to-wafer gap length, an area of the wafer, an electrode-to-wafer dielectric constant and an electrode-to-wafer conductive loss component.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the combination of functions for wafer voltage V_wafer at a given chamber pressure p is:

V_wafer(P_source,P_bias)=V₀(P_bias/P_b0)^a[(P_source/P_s0)K₁(p/p₀)<sup>−

1</sup>+(p/p₀)^b]^c

where V₀ is a reference voltage, P_b0 is a maximum bias power, P_s0 is a maximum source power, p₀ is a minimum chamber pressure and K₁ is a constant and a, b and c are real numbers.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

determining V₀ by applying zero plasma source power and maximum plasma bias power and setting chamber pressure at the minimum p=p₀ and measuring the wafer voltage; and

determining K₁ by increasing the source power to the maximum value while measuring wafer voltage and adjusting K₁ until the expression yields the measured value for wafer voltage.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein other plasma parameters of ion density or etch rate are combinations of functions of wafer voltage and plasma susceptance, and an expression for plasma susceptance is:

S(P_source,P_bias)=S₀(P_bias/P_b0)^e[(P_source/P_s0)(p/p₀)^f] [K₂(P_bias/P_b0)^g(p/p₀)^h+(p/p₀)ⁱ]

where S₀ is a reference susceptance and K₂ is a constant and e, f, g, h and i are real numbers.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

determining b₀ by applying maximum bias power and zero source power while holding the chamber at minimum pressure and measuring susceptance;

determining K₂ by increasing source power to the maximum value, measuring susceptance and changing K₂ until the expression yields the measured value of susceptance.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the function for plasma ion density η

is a combination of the susceptance and wafer voltage as follows;

η

=S²V_wafer².

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the expression for etch rate ER is a function of the expressions for susceptance and wafer voltage as follows:

ER=kS²V_wafer^3/2.

16. A method of operating a plasma reactor chamber with respect to two plasma parameters selected from the group consisting of ion density, wafer voltage, etch rate and wafer current, by controlling chamber parameters of source power and bias power, said method comprising:

characterizing the reactor chamber by performing the steps of;

a. for each one of said chamber parameters, ramping the level of the one chamber parameter while sampling RF electrical parameters at an RF bias power input to said wafer support pedestal and computing from each sample of said RF electrical parameters the values of said plasma parameters, and storing said values with the corresponding levels of said one chamber parameter as corresponding chamber parameter data;

b. for each one of said chamber parameters, deducing, from the corresponding chamber parameter data, a single variable function for each of said plasma parameters having said one chamber parameter as an independent variable;

c. constructing combinations of said functions and from said combinations, constructing surfaces defining concurrent values of said chamber parameters, each respective surface corresponding to a respective constant value of one of said plasma parameters, and storing said surfaces;

wherein the step of constructing surfaces defining simultaneous values of said chamber parameters comprises the following step carried out for each one of said plasma parameters;

combining the single variable functions dependent upon respective single variables of source power and bias power into a single composite function dependent upon both source power and bias power.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of constructing surfaces defining simultaneous values of said selected chamber parameters further comprises the following step carried out for each one of said selected plasma parameters:

setting the composite function equal to a succession of values of the respective plasma parameter.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of constructing surfaces defining simultaneous values of said chamber parameters further comprises the following step carried out for each one of said selected plasma parameters:

for each one of said succession of values, solving for a surface defining a set of simultaneous values of source power and bias power for which the respective plasma parameter has the one value.