Characterization of a novel lambda balanced inductive plasma source

G. K. Vinogradov,a) V. M. Menagarishvili, and S. Yoneyama

MC Electronics Company Limited, Shirane-cho, Nakakomagun, 400-02 Yamanashi, Japan
~Received 24 September 1997; accepted 6 July 1998!
A preliminary study on the 1–4.5 kW power industrial scale 27.12 MHz rf lambda-resonator oxygen
asher is presented. Contact probes of several types, including single Langmuir and flat wall probes,
thermocouples, and optical emission spectroscopy, are mainly used to diagnose plasma in the
inductive source area, downstream chamber and in the vicinity of wafers. Electron density in a 200
mm wafer asher at 2 kW rf power varies from 231011 in the plasma source to 53107 cm23 in a
downstream chamber 5–10 mm from a wafer. The ion density exceeds the electron density 10–60
times. The plasma space potential varies in a range of 14–22 V, while the floating potential of the
bulk plasma and wall surface varies from 19 to 217 V. The minimum surface floating potential of
217 V exists at the maximum of the rf voltage standing wave distributed along the full lambda
inductor. The wafer surface floating potential is in the range of 3–5 V depending on the reactor
configuration and is constant within 61 V on the 200 mm wafer. Positive ion current density on the
wafer and downstream chamber surface is less than 1 mA/cm22. The typical resist ashing
nonuniformity is <2%–5% ~range, not sigma! for both 200 and 300 mm ashers at about a 6–8
m/min ashing rate. © 1998 American Vacuum Society. @S0734-2101~98!00106-7#

I. INTRODUCTION
The use of inductive plasma sources has spread widely in
the last decade as high density plasma etching/deposition
tools.1,2 However, they have some drawbacks, including ~a!
capacitive coupling of the inductor-plasma wafer, which pro-
duces a secondary capacitive plasma over the wafer and
brings about wall sputtering and wafer damage; ~b! azi-
muthal discharge nonuniformity; ~c! too narrow a pressure
and power process window; and ~d! difficult discharge igni-
tion.
A novel internally balanced rf inductive plasma source
has been developed3 and realized commercially as a single
wafer quasidownstream oxygen asher, l-Strip 3000.1 ~l-
Strip is a product of MC Electronics.! It operates in a full
wave helical resonant or a lambda-resonator ~l-R! mode and
represents a rf plasma source utilizing a standing wave struc-
ture in order to overcome known drawbacks and extend the
applicability of inductive plasma sources for 300 mm wafer
processing.
The plasma phenomena in the 2 kW rf power l-R oper-
ating in a 0.001–100 Torr pressure range have been
reported.4,5 The l-R plasma source, having three separate
inductive zones, has substantially a three dimensional exci-
tation structure keeping the discharge volume about constant
over a wide range of pressure and power in comparison with
known inductive sources. The positions of each inductive
zone capable of generating of a separate plasma toroid is
strictly defined by the standing wave pattern of the rf current
along the coil of a one-lambda shorted spiral transmission
line. The discharge structure of the novel plasma source can-
not be obtained from conventional inductive sources: none of
them has multiple inductive excitation zones with opposite
inductive currents within the same inductor volume. More-
a!
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail:
100510.3707@compuserve.com
over, the capacitive power of the l-R plasma source is de-
posited mainly within the plasma source, while conventional
sources deposit an essential portion of the capacitive power
outside the source in a processing chamber.
The l-R plasma source has not yet been well character-
ized in terms of plasma and process parameters. We present
here some results on plasma diagnostics in the source area, in
the vicinity of the wafer, and on the surface of a process
chamber and wafer in high power industrial scale oxygen
discharges. The ashing processes are also estimated for 200
and 300 mm single wafer ashes having 2.7 and 4.5 kW nomi-
nal rf power generators.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
The l-R reactor was described previously.3 A basic con-
figuration of the reactor is shown in Fig. 1 for scaling pur-
poses. These reactors consist of a quartz discharge tube in-
serted into a water cooled copper coil representing a
transmission line having total electric length of one full wave
at resonance plasma loaded conditions. Roughly, the length
of copper winding is about 11 m. The coil and the tube are
enclosed by a cylinder water cooled copper shield. The top
flanges and the chambers are made of aluminum. Flat wafer
platens made of Al are mounted 120–140 mm below the
bottom ground end of the coils. They can be heated up to
300 °C by resistive heaters in both chambers.
The rf power at 27.12 MHz frequency in the range of
0.005–4.5 kW was supplied directly to the resonator by a 50
V coaxial cable. Three different power sources were used:
27.12 MHz, 2.7 and 4.5 kW rf power generators ~Kyosan,
Japan!, and a 2.25 kW maximum rf power wide band tube
amplifier IFI-410 with a sign wave signal generator HP-
8648A. The l-R plasma source operates without a matching
network with an energy efficiency virtually up to 100%, ne-
glecting the power losses in a coaxial cable. The resonator

3164 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 16„6…, Nov/Dec 1998 0734-2101/98/16„6…/3164/6/$15.00 ©1998 American Vacuum Society 3164
3165 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: A novel lambda balanced inductive plasma source
FIG. 1. Lambda-resonator reactor configuration for 200 and 300 mm wafer
processing: D5400 or 550 mm; d5235 or 420 mm; h568 or 100 mm;
WD5280 or 380 mm for 200 or 300 mm wafer asher, respectively. The flat
probes affixed to the chamber surface are marked by numbers.
itself has a quality factor Q of about 2360 as measured with
a network analyzer HP-8712C. The O2 gas flow was main-
tained at 3 slm for a 200 mm machine and at about 5 slm for
a 300 mm machine. The O2 pressure was 1.4 Torr unless
stated otherwise. Both setups are pumped with dry pumping
systems down to about 531023 Torr base pressure.
Optical emission from the plasma was monitored with a
Spectra Pro 275TM triple grating assembly spectrometer
~Acton Research Corp.! using an optical fiber bundle through
orifices in the copper outer shield at different positions on
the 200 mm setup.
We used several types of electrostatic probes, described in
more detail elsewhere.6 Mainly, 20 mm-diam probes of about
1–5 mm in length were used. Spherical Pt probes of about
100–130 mm diam were also used for diagnostics in a
plasma toroid having a gas temperature well above 1200 K
because the usual cylindrical probes sometimes melted. The
20-mm-diam Langmuir probes were inserted into fine quartz
capillaries having about a 60–80 mm outside diameter. Sev-
eral methods were used to protect the probe from rf fields
and to examine the quality of the protection. For example,
probes with different filter impedances and lengths of work-
ing wire were used in order to qualify the level of rf com-
pensation obtained.7 The Langmuir probes were made to be
moveable along and across the plasma source so that the
probe I–V characteristics could be obtained at several loca-
tions.
The grounded Al chamber surface was used as a reference
electrode for the probe measurements in a downstream
chamber. However, a special 131 cm2 Ni electrode was in-
serted into the center of the inductive plasma toroid to per-
form probe measurements in the high density plasma source6
which is essentially dc decoupled from the chamber.
The plasma potential V pl was determined as the potential
where the second derivative of the probe I–V characteristic
crosses the potential axis. An experimental error of about
60.8 V in both the space and floating potentials was deter-
mined solely by the reproducibility of the discharge condi-
tions. The electron and ion densities were derived from
JVST A - Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films
3165
probe saturation currents at the plasma space and floating
potentials, respectively.8
Flat 5-mm-diam surface probes were made of Ni and can
be fixed at different locations on the process chamber sur-
faces, including the wafer holder, to find out the distributions
of ion current densities and floating potentials over the whole
chamber. The 0.5-mm thick flat probes were made as insu-
lated Ni electrodes enclosed in Al grounded envelopes hav-
ing an opening to contact plasma.6 Single flat probes and 5-
and 10-probe linear arrays were used.
The gas temperature in the center plain of the plasma
source was estimated using fine movable thermocouples in-
serted in quartz capillaries. The thermocouples were made of
Pt-~Pt-Rh! 50-mm-diam wires. The method of two
thermocouples9 having different diameters of outside capil-
laries ~0.6 and 1.2 mm! was used in order to estimate a
correction factor for heterogeneous heat fluxes and radiative
losses. The thermocouples do not interact with the inductor
and do not perturb the discharge since the capacitance be-
tween the thermocouple wires and the plasma is small ~'0.2
pF/cm! and rf chokes are inserted into the signal lines. The
surface electric potential of the surrounding capillaries, made
of quartz, is electrically floating. Due to the large size of the
plasma source and the small diameters of the thermocouples
the longitudinal heat flux along the thermocouple wires or
capillary can be neglected. However, the simplicity of the
method is accompanied by an error that essentially increase
with the gas temperature and heterogeneous heat fluxes. This
error is estimated to be in the range of about 6100 K in our
case.10
Resist ashing experiments were performed in both 200
and 300 mm ashers. Wafers from different manufacturers
were examined. Positive photoresist MPR-4000 ~Mitsubishi
Kasei! was mainly used. The 200 mm wafer resists were 1.25
mm thick. The 300 mm wafers with about 3-mm-thick resist
layer from SELETE ~Semiconductor Electronics Leading
Edge Technology, Japan! were used as is. The distribution of
the film thickness on the wafers was measured with a
Nanospec/AFT measuring system ~Nanometrics!.
A wafer damage check was performed using electrostatic
wafer monitors ~Kobe Steel, Japan! with metal-oxide-
semiconductor ~MOS! capacitors having 90 Å-thick dielec-
trics. The antenna ratios were 350, 3500, 35 000, 350 000,
and 700 000.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The l-R discharge can be initiated from about 3 W rf
power at about 0.01 Torr. Very stable 2 kW inductive dis-
charges in Ar or O2 exist in the whole 0.001–20 Torr range.
Higher pressure can cause quenching of the inductive mode
due to a very high plasma impedance in an inductive current
channel. However, the discharge can exist with a stable ca-
pacitive plasmoid mode up to at least 100 Torr. The capaci-
tive plasmoid mode is a discharge with several longitudinal
contracted capacitive plasma strings or banana shapes. An
oxygen discharge under the standard conditions in the 200
mm machine appears as a pink plasma toroid located exactly
3166 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: A novel lambda balanced inductive plasma source
at the center plane of the lambda coil at the zero rf voltage
standing wave node. The visible diameter of the toroidal
channel is about 3–4 cm. The toroid contacts the quartz wall.
The rest of the discharge volume inside the coil radiates very
weakly. There is no visible emission in the downstream
chamber at all. The side inductive toroids typical for l-R
discharge in Ar cannot be launched in oxygen in the 330-
mm-inner diam ~i.d.! tube even at about 3.5–4 kW rf power.
A weak plasma emission in the side inductive zones can be
observed at 4.5 kW in the smaller plasma source. There are
two main reasons: ~1! oxygen discharges under 0.5–2 Torr
pressure dissipate more than 50% of the specific plasma
power into gas heating due to intrinsic mechanisms of energy
dissipation;11 ~2! negative ion formation through electron
capture drastically decreases the electric conductivity neces-
sary for efficient inductive coupling.1 The specific power
must be high enough to generate the necessary level of cir-
cular inductive current to overcome high electron and energy
losses and support a high level of electrical conductivity for
efficient rf power coupling in the inductive zones. It can be
explained in the same way as the transition from the capaci-
tive to the inductive mode in any conventional inductive
source.1 The situation may occur where the central toroid
efficiently absorbs an increasing power, not allowing power
to reach the side toroids. The detailed mechanism of power
distribution between the internal plasma structures and be-
tween the capacitive and inductive modes is presently un-
clear. All three plasma toroids easily appear in 2 Torr Ar
discharge at only about 0.5 kW rf power. At 20 Torr Ar
pressure 2 toroids exist at 1 kW power and the third one
appears at about 1.2 kW.
Figure 2 shows radial distributions of plasma space V pl
and floating V f potentials in a plasma source at different
FIG. 2. Plasma space ~a! and floating potential ~b! distributions in a central
plasma toroid of a 235 mm i.d. l-R plasma source: 1.4 Torr oxygen, 3 slm,
2 kW. The distance from the wafer platen ~in mm! is indicated.
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 16, No. 6, Nov/Dec 1998
3166
axial positions. The distance R 0 2R, where R 0 is an inside
tube radius, is measured from the quartz wall surface in order
to determine, more precisely, sharp sheath profiles. The high-
est plasma potential in the discharge of about 22–23 V is
characteristic for the plasma toroid at about 5–15 mm from
the wall. The axial area inside a toroid represents a potential
well of about 5 V in depth. It is generated due to the pump-
ing of fast electrons into this area from the toroid. This phe-
nomenon is very similar to the formation of low electric
potential on the surface of the discharge tube. There must be
corresponding ambipolar diffusion of positive ions from the
toroid into the potential well. They must recombine in this
zone with negative ions delivering a lot of detached elec-
trons. The electron energy distribution function should reveal
specific features of this phenomenon.6
A marked change in both the plasma and floating poten-
tial is seen near the quartz wall. The plasma potential itself is
not very informative unless the surface potential of the
boundary wall is known. Here we have measured the floating
potential up to the wall surface in several cases. Hence, the
sheath voltage can be derived. The plasma floating potential
is minimal at the 159 mm axial position corresponding to the
position of maximum standing wave rf voltage distributed
along the coil.3 The tube surface potential is most negative
here. The maximum dc sheath voltage is about 30–33 V. It is
obviously a low voltage sheath which cannot produce notice-
able sputtering at the discharge tube surface.
The mechanism of capacitive current balance is mainly
responsible for a drastic decrease of sheath voltage in the
l-R discharge in comparison with conventional inductive
plasma sources. The plasma of the l-R discharge has enough
high electric conductivity provided by the central inductive
toroid to essentially shunt the area between the two opposite
phase capacitive voltage halves of the coil. That is why the
capacitive currents are not ‘‘looking’’ for a ground surface
below the plasma source but substantially cancel one another
inside the plasma source.
In the case of l-R discharge the specific coil-plasma ca-
pacitance is essentially low since the coil is separated from
the tube/plasma by a 30–50 mm distance thus representing a
high impedance current generator with respect to the plasma
load. The main portion of the rf capacitive voltage drops
between the coil and the tube wall but not inside the dis-
charge vessel. In addition, the l-R supplies antiphase cur-
rents to the plasma. Thus, the in-phase working capacitance
of the coil is only 50% of the total coil-plasma capacitance.
Furthermore, the l-R coil is at least 4–20 times longer than
any conventional inductor, including a quarter wave helical
resonator, if the same excitation frequency is used. Hence,
the surface density of the capacitive current inductor plasma
at the tube wall is also decreased 4–20 times for the same
total power absorbed in a discharge.
There is a very thin quartz wall between the coil and
plasma. It does not increase the coil-plasma capacitance by
introducing a high dielectric constant material like a thick
flat window. Furthermore, the inductive portion of the l-R is
3167 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: A novel lambda balanced inductive plasma source
FIG. 3. Axial dependence of the floating potential in the downstream cham-
ber as measured with a 10 MV oscilloscope divider and a data acquisition
system.
at least 4–20 times more powerful in comparison with the
conventional inductors because of the larger number of turns
in the coil in comparison with inductively coupled plasma
~ICP! sources. Together these reasons explicitly show why
there must be a low voltage sheath between the wall surface
and plasma or why the capacitive coupling must not be a
problem in the l-R discharge. One more factor that further
decreases capacitive sheaths is the higher fundamental exci-
tation frequency of 27.12 MHz which additionally decreases
the dc sheath voltage in comparison with 13.56 MHz ICP
sources.
Long time ~about 103 discharge hours! observation of the
discharge tube surface at 2.5 kW rf power, with about 105
ignition events, did not show any sputtering. The ignition
here has a special mechanism. Since any rf discharge break-
down is capacitive in nature, there must be high initial elec-
trical field strength inside the source. In conventional
sources, the breakdown current flows from the highest rf
voltage on the inductor through the dielectric wall ~window!,
gas, onto the rf ground which is usually a wafer. In contrast,
the l-R source realizes remote breakdown inside the plasma
source between the opposite phase voltage standing waves,
which generate the highest electric field strength.
A rf calibrated weakly coupled capacitive probe similar to
that described in Ref. 12 was used to measure rf fluctuations
of the plasma potential. We found in the downstream after-
glow plasma several harmonics up to the eighth at least. At
resonance discharge conditions the 27, 54, 81, and 135 MHz
harmonics have about a 15–20 V amplitude. The fourth, 108
MHz harmonic, is a little weaker than the third and fifth. The
sixth to eighth harmonics are essentially weaker than about 5
V. So, the rf capacitive power is distributed into several high
frequency harmonics.
Figure 3 shows axial distributions of the floating potential
V f in the downstream chamber near the wafer platen mea-
sured using a rf protected Langmuir probe and two data ac-
quisition means: the Tektronix TEK-360P oscilloscope hav-
ing a 107 V input divider and a data acquisition system6 of
about 109 V input impedance. The V f at distances of ,50
mm from the wafer platen cannot be sensed with the 107 V
divider because of the low level of electron density. The
probe sheath has about 107 V dc impedance at a 50–60 mm
JVST A - Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films
3167
FIG. 4. Radial distributions of the discharge parameters: ~a! plasma space
and floating potentials, ~b! electron and ion densities 10 mm above the wafer
platen; and ~c! surface floating potential and ion current density on the wafer
platen.
axial distance and drastically decreases toward the wafer.
V f and the ion current at the wafer surface characterize
several kinds of electric damage to wafers. The surface state
is determined by a nearby plasma. Figure 4~a! shows the
distribution of floating and plasma potentials 10 mm above
the wafer surface. The V f is practically constant. The axial
plasma potential is about 1361 V at distances of 10–50 mm
from the platen when the narrow cylindrical surface of the
bottom flange is insulated from the plasma and increases up
to about 18–19 V with the dc conductive flange. Hence, the
plasma is almost dc insulated from the grounded chamber.
Even a small electrode immersed into the source plasma can
control the dc plasma potential in the range of about 610 V.6
Figure 4~c! shows both the floating potential and ion cur-
rent density distribution on the wafer platen. There are sev-
eral independent measurements in 6X, 6Y directions. The
surface floating potential V sf is about 360.8 V over the 120
mm radius in the case of the dc insulated bottom flange. So
such a small variation of the distributed surface potentials
cannot cause any electrical damage to the electronic struc-
ture. The same level of floating potentials was measured on
the 300 mm platen at 4.5 kW rf power discharge.
The bottom flange itself also has relatively low surface
ion current density along the circumferential surface and
some systematic azimuthal nonuniformity in the range of
about 62 V which certainly cannot affect high rate thermally
activated downstream chemical processes. The surface float-
ing potentials and ion current densities were measured at
several points on the chamber wall as indicated in Fig. 1 by
the numbers 1–5. The ion current has measurable magnitude
at only 3–5 locations. The corresponding ion current densi-
ties and floating potentials for probes 3, 4, and 5 are 0.04
3168 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: A novel lambda balanced inductive plasma source
FIG. 5. Optical emission spectra taken across the central plasma toroid. Line
identification is discussed in the text.
mA/cm2 and 9.5 V; 0.12 mA/cm2 and 6.7 V; 7 mA/cm2 and
21.1 V. The 1, 2 ion current densities are below about 0.01
mA/cm22 and could not be measured. The floating potentials
were therefore undetectable.
The temperature of the outside quartz surface is 74063 K
at the toroid-wall contact area as measured by a thin thermo-
couple in close contact with the tube wall and by an infrared
radiometer. There are direct indications of the thermocouples
inserted into plasma showing the area of the maximum gas
temperature and heterogeneous fluxes of recombining elec-
trons and positive ions. The neutral particle density in this
area is about three times lower than outside the toroid pro-
viding a more favorable low impedance condition for chan-
neling the inductive current. The temperature drop across the
2-mm-thick quartz wall has been found to be about 4065 K
thus giving a heat flux of '0.5 W/cm22 there. The thermo-
couple indications at the inside tube surface fit well with the
results of the outside temperature measurements.
Optical emission spectra from the central toroid of oxygen
discharge, as shown in Fig. 5, indicate a highly dissociated
plasma. The spectrum consists exclusively of atomic oxygen
lines and the well known strongest OH band at 306.4 nm.
Numerous atomic oxygen lines were identified. The emission
bands of molecular oxygen ions were not detected. The
strongest OII lines were found at 463.9 and 464.2 nm. We are
not positive of some other detected OII lines because of the
monochromator’s limitations. Two hydrogen lines were de-
tected at 486.2 and 656.7 nm. The source of H and OH was
the trace water content in the feed gas.
The electron and ion densities and their radial distribu-
tions were measured in the toroidal area.6 The negative ion
density exceeds the electron density 10–50 times depending
on location. Therefore, we used a low limit ion temperature
of about 0.1 eV in the Bohm formula for positive ion
density.13,14 The electron density in the plasma toroid is 2
31011 cm23 15 mm from the quartz wall while the ion den-
sity is 3.431012 cm23. The plasma toroid produces a num-
ber of electrons diffusing over the plasma source. Additional
rf heating of these electrons is provided by very high fre-
quency capacitive harmonics thus creating an efficient three
dimensional dissociation zone separate from the downstream
process chamber.
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, Vol. 16, No. 6, Nov/Dec 1998
3168
The plasma-wafer interaction in a l-R oxygen asher is
negligible. Indeed, the positive ion flux onto the wafer is
<731012 cm22 s21, while the flux of carbon atoms from the
wafer surface corresponding to the normal resist ashing rate
of 7 mm/min is '431017 cm22 s21. So, there is less than
one positive ion striking the surface for about 63104 ashed
carbon atoms. That is why at room temperature the ashing
rate is only 0.004 mm/min in the same discharge correspond-
ing to the decreased thermal activation.
Chargeup damage tests were performed on the l-3000
asher. During the 5 min processing time ~2.5 kW; 0.5, 1.0,
and 1.5 Torr; 1, 3, and 3 slm O2 flow! no variation of the
leakage current ~typical value is 225 pA for 700 k ratio
antennas! or voltage shifts of the MOS capacitors were de-
tected. The damage parameters are comparable with those of
high pressure ozone ashers.
There is neither a separator nor a long bent tube between
the dissociation zone and the processing surface typical for
any downstream asher. It is favorable for the fastest delivery
of dissociated species to wafers and decreases active particle
losses. The process data were collected on the single wafer
stripper l-3000. The resist stripping rate obeys an Arrhenius
dependence with well known 0.5 eV activation energy typi-
cal for the thermally activated atomic oxygen ashing. The
data correspond to the wafers pre-heated for about 3 min at
1.5 Torr oxygen flow at a process temperature.
There are typical problems with kinetic measurements of
nonstationary fast processes like dry ashing at high tempera-
tures. Ashing results are strongly dependent on the wafer
preheating conditions: atmospheric air, vacuum, or a work-
ing gas and pressure. In a usual fab process the wafer tem-
perature in the l-3000 machine never reaches the susceptor
temperature since the process time is much shorter ~typically
about 10–20 s! than the characteristic heating time and nei-
ther electrostatic chuck nor mechanical clamps are used.
Typical ashing rate ~AR! nonuniformity on 200 mm wa-
fers is about 2%–3% with a 5 mm exclusion edge area
@ (ARmax2ARmin!/~23ARave!#, where ARmax , ARmin, and
ARave are the maximum, minimum and average ARS over 25
points measured 0, 45, and 95 mm from the wafer center.
The ashing uniformity of the 300 mm asher at 4.5 kW rf
power is even better than that of the 200 mm tool. There is
0.7% uniformity within a 200 mm area on the 300 mm wa-
fer. The initial resist thickness on the 300 nm wafers was
about 3 mm with about 0.3% nonuniformity. The ashing rate
nonuniformity measured at about a half-thickness level was
about 1.5% within a 10 mm exclusion area and about 5%
within a 5 mm exclusion area.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Industrial scale lambda-resonator rf discharges in oxygen
ashers were studied. The l-R plasma source produces one
high density plasma toroid in the central area of 2 kW oxy-
gen discharge in a 235 mm i.d. plasma source, while there
are three completely developed toroids in argon discharges
even at about 1 kW rf power. The number of generated tor-
3169 Vinogradov, Menagarishvili, and Yoneyama: A novel lambda balanced inductive plasma source
1
oids depends on the gas type, pressure, and rf power. The
discharge has typically about 97%–99% energy efficiency
2
operating without a matchbox.
The highest plasma potential in the oxygen discharge un- 3
der typical ashing conditions of the l-R asher is 20–22 V.
4
The maximum dc potential difference between the plasma
and the discharge tube surface is 30–33 V. There is no sput-
5
tering of the discharge tube in the capacitively balanced l-R
plasma source.
The parameters of the afterglow plasma in the down- 6
stream chamber are similar to those of the conventional
7
downstream asher. The density of plasma electrons about 10
mm from the wafer surface is on the order of 5
8
3107 cm23. The positive ion flux on the wafer surface is
<731012 cm22 s21. The wafer surface floating potential is 9
only about 3–5 V over 200 and 300 mm wafers. The stan-
10
dard process examination with chargeup MOS wafer moni-
tors having antenna ratios of up to 700 000 and oxide thick-
nesses of about 90 Å did not detect any damage during 5 min 11
discharge processing.
The ashing rate and uniformity of the 300 mm lambda- 12
resonator oxygen asher are about the same as or even exceed 13
the parameters of the 200 mm asher.
14
Presented at the 44th National Symposium of the American Vacuum Soci-
ety, San Jose, CA, 20–24 October 1997.
JVST A - Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films
3169
M. A. Liberman and A. J. Liechtenberg, Principles of Plasma Discharges
and Materials Processing ~Wiley, New York, 1994!.
High Density Plasma Sources, edited by O. A. Popov ~Noyes, Park
Ridge, NJ, 1995!.
G. K. Vinogradov and S. Yoneyama, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 2 35,
L1130 ~1996!.
G. K. Vinogradov and S. Yoneyama, Proceedings of 13th Symposium on
Plasma Processing, Tokyo, January 1996 ~unpublished!.
G. K. Vinogradov and S. Yoneyama, Proceedings of the 43rd National
Symposium of the American Vacuum Society, Philadelphia, PA, 1996
~unpublished!.
G. K. Vinogradov, V. M. Menagarishvili, and S. Yoneyama, J. Vac. Sci.
Technol. A 16, 1444 ~1998!.
G. K. Vinogradov, G. J. Imanbaev, and D. I. Slovetsky, High Energy
Chem. 19, 455 ~1985!.
L. Schott, in Plasma Diagnostics, edited by W. Lochte-Holtgreven ~AIP,
New York, 1995!.
A. I. Maksimov, A. F. Sergienko, and D. I. Slovetsky, Fiz. Plasmy 4, 347
~1978!.
Yu. A. Ivanov, Yu. A. Lebedev, and L. S. Polak, in Methods of Contact
Diagnostics in Plasma Chemistry, edited by L. S. Polak ~Nauka,
Moskow, 1981! ~in Russian!.
V. V. Rybkin, A. B. Bessarab, and A. I. Maximov, Teplofiz. Vys. Temp.
34, 181 ~1996! ~in Russian!.
R. R. J. Gagne and A. Cantin, J. Appl. Phys. 43, 2639 ~1972!.
R. L. F. Boyd and J. B. Thompson, Proc. R. Soc. London London A252,
102 ~1959!.
H. Amemiya, B. M. Annaratone, and J. E. Allen, Proceedings of the 3rd
International Conference on Reactive Plasmas and 14th Symposium on
Plasma Processing, Nara-ken, Japan, 1997, p. 239.