Plasma enhanced chemical vapor reactor with shaped electrodes

A method of plasma processing a semiconductor integrated circuit processing wafer, comprising the steps of:

• providing a semiconductor integrated circuit processing wafer with a surface carrying a layer of material to be plasma etched or to which a layer of material is to be applied by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD);
• providing a passive electrode;
• providing a feed electrode which defines with the passive electrode a gap;
• disposing the processing wafer in the gap;
• determining an anticipated material deposition profile of non-uniformity of the layer of material to be applied by PECVD;
• reconfiguring an active surface of the feed electrode to be non-complementary to the passive electrode and at the active surface to define a profile complementary to or like the anticipated material deposition profile of non-uniformity;
• and
• using the reconfigured feed electrode, applying the PECVD material layer with a more uniform thickness.

A method of making a semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising the steps of:

• providing a semiconductor integrated circuit processing wafer including a substrate;
• using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), forming a first material layer on the substrate, which material layer has a non-uniformity of material thickness over a dimension of the wafer;
• determining an anticipated non-uniformity of material thickness over the dimension of the wafer for a second material layer to be formed on the first material layer on the substrate by the PECVD, the anticipated non-uniformity of material thickness is determined based upon the non-uniformity of material thickness of the first material layer on the substrate;
• reconfiguring an active feed electrode for the PECVD to complement the anticipated non-uniformity of material thickness;
• and
• using the complementarily reconfiguring of the electrode in the PECVD, forming the second material layer, said complementary reconfiguring of the electrode abating the anticipated non-uniformity of material thickness over the dimension of the wafer.

A method of making a semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising the steps of:

• providing a semiconductor integrated circuit processing wafer including a substrate;
• with a plasma, selectively either etching an existing layer of material on the processing wafer or applying a layer of material on the processing wafer;
• disposing the processing wafer upon a passive electrode;
• providing an active feed electrode which with the passive electrode defines a gap;
• disposing the processing wafer in the gap;
• determining an anticipated thickness non-uniformity profile of the existing material layer after etching or of the material layer to be applied;
• reconfiguring an active surface of the feed electrode to be non-complementary to the passive electrode and to define with the processing wafer a non-uniform spacing selectively complementary to or like the anticipated thickness non-uniformity profile of the existing material layer after etching or of the material layer to be applied;
• and
• using the configured electrode, etching the existing material layer by plasma etching or applying the layer of material by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with an improved uniformity of material thickness profile.