US 2019/0198299 A1Published application

Wafer processing method and wafer processing apparatus

AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation

InventorsTomoyuki WATANABE, Yutaka KOUZUMA, Takumi TANDOU, Kenetsu YOKOGAWA, Hiroshi ITO

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Abstract

Provided is a plasma processing apparatus including: a processing chamber; a sample stage placed inside the processing chamber; a processing gas supply unit which supplies processing gas into the processing chamber; a high-frequency power supply which supplies an electric field inside the processing chamber; an electrostatic chuck unit disposed on the sample stage in which openings to flow heat transfer gas are formed; a refrigerant supply unit which supplies a refrigerant inside the sample stage; and a control unit, wherein the control unit controls a heat transfer gas supply unit to control the temperature of a wafer depending on a plurality of processes for processing the wafer by switching a flow rate of the heat transfer gas or the type of the heat transfer gas flowing out of the openings between a concave portion formed in the electrostatic chuck unit and the wafer attracted to the electrostatic chuck unit.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A wafer processing apparatus as a plasma processing apparatus comprising:

a vacuum chamber equipped with a processing chamber therein;
a sample stage disposed in the processing chamber;
a processing gas supply unit which supplies processing gas into the processing chamber;
a high-frequency power supply which supplies an electric field for forming plasma, using the processing gas introduced into the processing chamber by the processing gas supply unit;
an electrostatic chuck unit in which a plurality of openings disposed on the sample stage to allow heat transfer gas having heat transferability to flow out from an upper side are formed, a central portion is formed in a concave shape with respect to a circumferential portion, a wafer to be processed is placed on the circumferential portion, thereby attracting the wafer with electrostatic force;
a heat transfer gas supply unit which supplies the heat transfer gas to be discharged from the plurality of openings of the electrostatic chuck unit;
a refrigerant supply unit connected to a refrigerant flow passage through which a refrigerant formed inside the sample stage circulates to supply a refrigerant to the refrigerant flow passage;
and
a control unit which controls the processing gas supply unit, the high-frequency power supply, the electrostatic chuck unit, and the refrigerant supply unit, wherein
the control unit controls the heat transfer gas supply unit to control the temperature of the wafer depending on a plurality of processes of processing the wafer by switching a flow rate of the heat transfer gas flowing out of the plurality of openings between the central portion formed in the concave shape of the electrostatic chuck unit and the wafer attracted to the electrostatic chuck unit to cause the wafer to float from the electrostatic chuck unit or the type of the heat transfer gas.

7 more elements

A method of processing a wafer in which a process target wafer is placed on a sample stage disposed in a processing chamber inside a vacuum chamber, an electric field is supplied from a high-frequency power supply into the vacuum chamber to form plasma using processing gas introduced into the vacuum chamber from a processing gas supply unit, while causing a refrigerant supplied from a refrigerant supply device to a refrigerant flow passage disposed inside the sample stage to circulate, the wafer is placed and held on an electrostatic chuck disposed on an upper portion of the sample stage and including a central portion formed in a concave shape with respect to a peripheral portion thereof to attract the wafer by an electrostatic force, and while supplying heat transfer gas having thermal conductivity from the heat transfer gas supply unit between the wafer and the central portion formed in the concave shape of the electrostatic chuck unit from the plurality of openings arranged on a top surface of the electrostatic chuck unit, the wafer is processed by a plurality of processes, wherein

in the plurality of steps, the control unit controls the heat transfer gas supply unit to adjust the amount or pressure of the heat transfer gas introduced from the opening in a state in which the wafer is placed on the electrostatic chuck unit to adjust the height between the wafer and the top surface of the electrostatic chuck unit to a predetermined value of each of the plurality of processes, thereby processing the wafer, while controlling the temperature of the wafer depending on the plurality of processes for processing the wafer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.