Multi-zone plasma processing method and apparatus

Abstract

A multi-zone multi-electrode plasma processing method for uniform plasma processing and effective in-situ fabrication reactor process chamber (10) cleaning during a plasma deposition or etch process first comprises the steps of flowing plasma deposition or etch gases into the process chamber (10) in a chopped or continuous mode (line 214) followed by flowing plasma gases into the process chamber (10) in a chopped mode (220) or a continuous mode. By intermittently activating (224) at least one plasma electrode (24 or 52) upon initiating flow of the plasma processing gas, the method generates a process plasma medium to perform the plasma-enhanced deposition or etch process. Additionally, intermittently activating the same or a different configuration of plasma electrodes (66), during the time that the process gas flows are stepped, an in-situ cleaning plasma is produced for performing a plasma-assisted chamber cleaning process. The multi-zone plasma processing method of this invention permits flexible activation of multiple plasma electrodes in a time-division-multiplexed or continuous format using one or several radio-frequency power sources in order to control plasma density and uniformity as well as ion energies near semiconductor wafer (22), process chamber walls (38), and gas showerhead (52).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.