Creating ion energy distribution functions (IEDF)

Abstract

Systems and methods for creating arbitrarily-shaped ion energy distribution functions using shaped-pulse-bias. In an embodiment, a method includes applying a negative jump voltage to an electrode of a process chamber to set a wafer voltage for a wafer, modulating an amplitude of the wafer voltage to produce a train of groups of pulse bursts with different amplitudes, and repeating the modulating of the amplitude of the wafer voltage to repeat the train of the groups of pulse bursts to create an ion energy distribution function having more than one energy peak. In some embodiments, the negative jump voltage can include a single-cycle voltage waveform with a voltage ramp during an ion-current phase, in which the voltage ramp can be positive or negative and a duration of the ion-current phase can comprise more or less than fifty percent of a period of the waveform.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.