Gas injection system for plasma processing

Abstract

A plasma processing system for plasma processing of substrates such as semiconductor wafers. The system includes a plasma processing chamber, a substrate support for supporting a substrate within the processing chamber, a dielectric member having an interior surface facing the substrate support, the dielectric member forming a wall of the processing chamber, a gas supply comprising one or more injector tubes extending rectilinearly in the plasma processing chamber and having one or more orifices in a sidewall for supplying gas into the chamber, and an RF energy source such as a planar coil which inductively couples RF energy through the dielectric member and into the chamber to energize the process gas into a plasma state. The gas is supplied through orifices located outside of regions at the distal tip of the injector tubes where electric field lines are concentrated. The arrangement minimizes clogging of the orifices since the orifices are located away from areas where most build-up of process byproducts occur on the injector tube.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.