Plasma processing method and apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsYukito Aota, Masahiro Kanai
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Abstract
In a plasma processing method, on a back side of a cathode electrode is provided at least one conductor plate d.c. potentially insulated from the cathode electrode and an opposing electrode, and the cathode electrode and the conductor plate are enclosed with a shielding wall such that a ratio of an inter-electrode coupling capacitance provided by the cathode electrode and the opposing electrode to a coupling capacitance provided by the cathode electrode and a bottom surface of the shielding wall on the back side of the conductor plate is not less than a predetermined value. Thereby, a high-quality, high-speed plasma processing is realized.
Claims5
In a plasma processing method comprising introducing a gas into a discharge space having provided therein a cathode electrode and an opposing electrode opposed to the cathode electrode, and converting the gas into a plasma by a high frequency power, the improvement which comprises the steps of:
- (a) providing on a back side of the cathode electrode at least one conductor plate d. c. potentially insulated from the cathode electrode and the opposing electrode;
- (b) enclosing the cathode electrode and the conductor plate with a shielding wall to configure a discharge space such that an electrode coupling capacitance ratio of (i) an inter-electrode coupling capacitance provided by the cathode electrode and the opposing electrode to (ii) a coupling capacitance provided by the cathode electrode and a bottom surface of the shielding wall on the back side of the conductor plate, is not less than a predetermined value;
- and
- (c) supplying a high frequency power with a pulse modulation directly to the cathode electrode to convert the gas into a plasma.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.