Plasma delivery system for modulated plasma systems
AssigneeAdvanced Energy Industries, Inc.
InventorGideon Van Zyl
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Abstract
Plasma processing systems and methods are disclosed. The plasma processing system includes a high-frequency generator configured to deliver power to a plasma chamber and a low-frequency generator configured to deliver power to the plasma chamber. A filter is coupled between the plasma chamber and the high-frequency generator, and the filter suppresses mixing products of high frequencies produced by the high-frequency generator and low frequencies produced by the low-frequency generator.
Claims23
A plasma processing system comprising:
- a high-frequency generator configured to deliver power to a plasma chamber;
- a low-frequency generator configured to deliver power to the plasma chamber;
- and
- a filter coupled between the plasma chamber and the high-frequency generator, the filter configured to suppress power outside of a bandwidth around a frequency of the high-frequency generator,
- wherein the suppression of power at the frequency of the high-frequency generator is at most 2 dB,
- and wherein the suppression of power at frequencies more than the frequency of the low-frequency generator from the frequency of the high-frequency generator is at least 2 dB higher than the suppression of power at the frequency of the high-frequency generator.
A plasma processing system comprising:
- a high-frequency generator configured to deliver power to a plasma chamber;
- a low-frequency generator configured to deliver power to the plasma chamber;
- a filter coupled between the plasma chamber and the high frequency generator, the filter including two or more helical resonators connected in parallel;
- and
- a fixed or variable time delay coupled between the filter and the plasma chamber.
A method for filtering power in a plasma processing system comprising:
- supplying power to a plasma chamber with a high-frequency generator to ignite and sustain a plasma;
- supplying power to a plasma chamber with a low-frequency generator that is connected to the plasma;
- and
- suppressing power mixing products with a filter to limit variation of a time-varying load reflection coefficient presented to the high frequency generator.
The method of 17, including:
- cooling the filter using ground-connected water cooling.
The method of 17, including:
- delaying a power signal between the filter and the plasma chamber to enable impedances presented to the filter to be matched by frequency tuning the high-frequency generator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.