Chemical vapor deposition plasma reactor having plural ion shower grids
First Claim
1. A plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor workpiece, comprising:
- a reactor chamber;
a set of plural parallel ion shower grids stacked together that divide said chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region, said process region containing no grids, each of said ion shower grids having plural collinear cylindrical hole orifices from grid to grid, each orifice being oriented in a transverse direction relative to a surface plane of the respective ion shower grid;
a workpiece support in said process region facing the lowermost one of said ion shower grids whereby said process region is bounded between the lowermost one of said ion shower grids and said workpiece support;
a reactive species source for furnishing into said ion generation region a chemical vapor deposition precursor species;
a vacuum pump coupled to said process region;
a plasma source power applicator for generating a plasma in said ion generation region;
a grid potential source of radio frequency (RF) power coupled to said set of ion shower grids, the orifices through at least some of said ion shower grids having;
(a) an aspect ratio sufficient to limit ion trajectories in said process region to a narrow angular range about said non-parallel direction,(b) a resistance to gas flow sufficient to support a pressure drop between said ion generation and process regions of about at least a factor of 4.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor workpiece includes a reactor chamber and a set of plural parallel ion shower grids that divide the chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower reactor 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 ion shower grid. A workpiece support in the process region faces the lowermost one of the ion shower grids. A reactive species source furnishes into the ion generation region a chemical vapor deposition precursor species. The reactor further includes a vacuum pump coupled to the reactor region, a plasma source power applicator for generating a plasma in the ion generation region and a grid potential source coupled to the set of ion shower grids. The orifices through at least some of the ion shower grids have an aspect ratio sufficient to limit ion trajectories in the reactor region to a narrow angular range about the non-parallel direction, and a resistance to gas flow sufficient to support a pressure drop between the ion generation and reactor regions of about at least a factor of 4. The grid potential source can be capable of applying different voltages to different ones of the grids.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor workpiece, comprising:
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a reactor chamber; a set of plural parallel ion shower grids stacked together that divide said chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region, said process region containing no grids, each of said ion shower grids having plural collinear cylindrical hole orifices from grid to grid, each orifice being oriented in a transverse direction relative to a surface plane of the respective ion shower grid; a workpiece support in said process region facing the lowermost one of said ion shower grids whereby said process region is bounded between the lowermost one of said ion shower grids and said workpiece support; a reactive species source for furnishing into said ion generation region a chemical vapor deposition precursor species; a vacuum pump coupled to said process region; a plasma source power applicator for generating a plasma in said ion generation region; a grid potential source of radio frequency (RF) power coupled to said set of ion shower grids, the orifices through at least some of said ion shower grids having; (a) an aspect ratio sufficient to limit ion trajectories in said process region to a narrow angular range about said non-parallel direction, (b) a resistance to gas flow sufficient to support a pressure drop between said ion generation and process regions of about at least a factor of 4. - 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)
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Specification