Neil Benjamin

ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF IONS BOMBARDING BIASED ELECTRODES IN HIGH DENSITY PLASMA REACTORS

A compact retarding field ion energy analyzer has been designed and built to measure the energy distribution of ions bombarding the wafer surfaces placed on radio frequency (rf) biased electrodes in high-density plasma reactors. The analyzer was used to measure the energy distribution of ions impinging on the rf-biased electrostatic chuck in a high-density transformer coupled plasma (TCP) reactor. The effects of TCP power, rf bias, gas composition, and ion mass on the ion energy distributions (IEDs) were demonstrated through Ar, Ne, Ar/Ne, O2 and CF4/O2 discharges. In the operating range studied, the average ion energy increased linearly with increasing rf bias while the ion flux remained constant indicating that independent control of ion flux and energy was achieved in the TCP reactor. Bimodal ion energy distributions resulting from ion energy modulation in the sheath were observed and multiple peaks in the IEDs measured in gas mixtures were identified as ions with different masses falling through the sheath.A compact retarding field ion energy analyzer has been designed and built to measure the energy distribution of ions bombarding the wafer surfaces placed on radio frequency (rf) biased electrodes in high-density plasma reactors. The analyzer was used to measure the energy distribution of ions impinging on the rf-biased electrostatic chuck in a high-density transformer coupled plasma (TCP) reactor. The effects of TCP power, rf bias, gas composition, and ion mass on the ion energy distributions (IEDs) were demonstrated through Ar, Ne, Ar/Ne, O2 and CF4/O2 discharges. In the operating range studied, the average ion energy increased linearly with increasing rf bias while the ion flux remained constant indicating that independent control of ion flux and energy was achieved in the TCP reactor. Bimodal ion energy distributions resulting from ion energy modulation in the sheath were observed and multiple peaks in the IEDs measured in gas mixtures were identified as ions with different masses falling through the s...

Compact floating ion energy analyzer for measuring energy distributions of ions bombarding radio-frequency biased electrode surfaces

A compact floating retarding-field ion energy analyzer and the accompanying electronics have been designed and built to measure the energy distribution of ions bombarding radio-frequency (rf) biased electrodes in high-density plasma reactors. The design consists of two main components, a compact retarding field vacuum probe and an integrated stack of floating electronics for providing output voltages, measuring currents and voltages and transmitting data to a computer. The operation and capabilities of the energy analyzer are demonstrated through ion energy distribution measurements conducted on a 4 MHz rf-biased electrostatic chuck in a 13.56 MHz high-density transformer coupled plasma (TCP) reactor. The analyzer is capable of operating while floating on several hundreds of volts of rf bias and at pressures up to 30 mTorr without differential pumping. The effects of pressure (2–30 mTorr), TCP power (500–1500 W), rf-bias power (0–800 W), gas composition, and ion mass on the ion energy distributions are de...

Effects of processing pressure on device damage in RF biased ECR CVD

Charging effects were investigated in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma-enhanced CVD system using a variety of techniques including CHARM-2 wafers (Lukaszek et al, 1994), SPORT wafers (Roche and McVittie, 1996) and full device antenna structures. In this work, we show two factors affecting the potential at the wafer surface which can be correlated to conditions where severe plasma damage is expected to occur. The CHARM-2 wafer data detected both the time-averaged (DC) and time-varying (AC) potentials. The DC component is shown to be a function of the applied wafer bias power while the AC component appears to be related to a low frequency potential fluctuation (a possible instability in the microwave generated magnetized plasma). Both of these signals can be reduced by increasing the processing pressure. Processes with higher pressure result in improved device damage immunity.