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AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsTza-Jing Gung, Xianmin Tang, John Forster, Peijun Ding, Marc Schweitzer, Keith A. Miller, Ilya Lavitsky
Estimating the term…
One aspect of the invention includes an auxiliary magnet ring positioned outside of the chamber wall of a plasma sputter reactor and being disposed at least partially radially outwardly of an RF coil used to inductively generate a plasma, particularly for sputter etching the substrate being sputter deposited. Thereby, a magnetic barrier prevents the plasma from leaking outwardly to the coil and improves the uniformity of sputter etching. The magnetic field also acts as a magnetron when the coil, when made of the same material as the primary target, is being used as a secondary target. Another aspect of the invention includes a one-piece inner shield extending from the target to the pedestal with a smooth inner surface and supported by an annular flange in a middle portion of the shield. The shield may be used to support the RF coil.
A plasma sputter reactor, comprising:
A plasma sputter and processing reactor, comprising:
A shield adapted for use in a plasma sputter reactor and generally circularly symmetric about an axis, comprising:
For use in a sputter reactor comprising (a) a vacuum chamber arranged about a central axis, (b) a target including a support flange supporting said target on said chamber and a recess formed between said flange and a sputtering region of said target, and (c) a pedestal having an operational position along said central axis for supporting a substrate in opposition to said target,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.