Method and apparatus for monitoring etching
AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.
InventorsTatsumi Mizutani, Kazuyoshi Ueki, Shinya Iida, Hideo Komatsu
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for monitoring a dry etching process using gas plasma, wherein a ratio of a spectrum intensity which varies depending on the process of the etching process to a spectrum intensity which is independent of the process of the etching process is determined and a resulting signal intensity is monitored. The completion of the etching process can be exactly determined irrespective of variation of the etching conditions.
Claims12
A method for monitoring etching process for etching a workpiece by ions or radical sproduced by glow display plasma, comprising the steps of:
- correcting a specific spectrum intensity, which is dependent on the process of said etching process, of atoms or molecules produced in said plasma by another spectrum intensity which is independent of the process of said etching process;
- and
- monitoring a resulting signal intensity.
An apparatus for monitoring etching process for etching a workpiece by ions or radicals produced by glow discharge plasma, comprising:
- means for measuring a specific spectrum intensity, which is dependent on the process of said etching process, of atoms or molecules produced in said plasma;
- means for measuring a spectrum intensity independent of the process of said etching process;
- and
- means for producing a corrected spectrum intensity, said corrected spectrum intensity being generated by correcting said spectrum intensity dependent on the process of said etching process by said spectrum intensity independent of the process of said etching process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.