Some embodiments provide apparatuses capable of enabling the measurement of various characteristics of a showerhead-substrate gap in a processing chamber, including at high temperatures and at low-light conditions, using an imaging system external to the processing chamber.

A plasma processing system is provided. The system includes a chamber, a controller and a showerhead disposed in the chamber. A first gas manifold is connected to the showerhead for providing a first gas from a first gas source responsive to control from the controller. A shower-pedestal is disposed in the chamber and oriented opposite the showerhead. A second gas manifold is connected to the shower-pedestal for providing a second gas from a second gas source responsive to control from the controller. A substrate support for holding a substrate at a spaced apart relationship from the shower-pedestal is provided. A radio frequency (RF) power supply for providing power to the showerhead to generate a plasma is provided. The plasma is used for depositing a film on a back-side of the substrate, when present in the chamber. The substrate is held by the substrate support in the spaced apart relationship from the shower-pedestal, during backside deposition. The showerhead provides a purge gas during the backside deposition.

A plasma processing system is provided. The system includes a chamber, a controller and a showerhead disposed in the chamber. A first gas manifold is connected to the showerhead for providing a first gas from a first gas source responsive to control from the controller. A shower-pedestal is disposed in the chamber and oriented opposite the showerhead. A second gas manifold is connected to the shower-pedestal for providing a second gas from a second gas source responsive to control from the controller. A substrate support for holding a substrate at a spaced apart relationship from the shower-pedestal is provided. A radio frequency (RF) power supply for providing power to the showerhead to generate a plasma is provided. The plasma is used for depositing a film on a back-side of the substrate, when present in the chamber. The substrate is held by the substrate support in the spaced apart relationship from the shower-pedestal, during backside deposition. The showerhead provides a purge gas during the backside deposition.

A film forming apparatus includes: a film forming gas discharge part; an exhaust port; a rotation mechanism; a heating part configured to heat the interior of a reaction container to a temperature lower than a temperature of a film forming gas discharged from the film forming gas discharge part; first gas discharge holes opened, in the film forming gas discharge part, toward a gas temperature reducing member so that the film forming gas is cooled by colliding with the gas temperature reducing member inside the reaction container before the film forming gas is supplied to substrates; and second gas discharge holes opened, in the film forming gas discharge part, in a direction differing from an opening direction of the first gas discharge holes so that the film forming gas does not collide with the gas temperature reducing member before the film forming gas is supplied to the substrates.

The method of forming a thin film feeds a raw material gas causing a reversible decomposition reaction toward an upper surface of substrate placed on a placing table in a processing container; decomposes the raw material gas with a predetermined decomposing scheme thereby forming a thin film of the raw material gas on the surface of the substrate; and feeds a decomposition restraint gas having a characteristic of restraining a thermal decomposition of the raw material gas separately from the raw material gas toward a peripheral portion of the substrate when the raw material gas is fed to the substrate, thereby restraining the thermal decomposition of the raw material gas and selectively preventing the thin film from being formed in the peripheral portion of the substrate.

The embodiments disclosed herein pertain to methods and apparatus for depositing stress compensating layers and sacrificial layers on either the front side or back side of a substrate. In various implementations, back side deposition occurs while the wafer is in a normal front side up orientation. The front/back side deposition may be performed to reduce stress introduced through deposition on the front side of the wafer. The back side deposition may also be performed to minimize back side particle-related problems that occur during post-deposition processing such as photolithography.

Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) is used to deposit silicon nitride onto a semiconductor substrate. A stack of silicon nitride layers are deposited onto a rear surface of the semiconductor substrate by PECVD. The stack of silicon nitride layers comprises at least four layers of silicon nitride which alternate between tensile layers which are subject to a tensile stress and compressive layers which are subject to a compressive stress.

A plasma processing chamber for depositing a film on an underside surface of a wafer, includes a showerhead pedestal. The showerhead pedestal includes a first zone and a second zone. The first zone is configured for depositing a first film to the underside surface of the wafer and the second zone is configured for depositing a second film to the underside surface of the wafer.

Embodiments described herein generally pertain to a system and method for resource sharing among processing stations in a substrate processing system. The system including at least a first processing chamber with a first processing volume, a substrate support disposed within the first processing volume having a first backside gas delivery port, a backside gas conduit, a gas delivery port, a first inlet valve between a central junction and an inlet junction, and a first bypass valve between the central junction and a first bypass port. The system includes a pressure controller with an inlet and outlet; the outlet connects to the inlet junction. Also, a flow-regulating orifice with an inlet coupled to a gas source and an outlet communicating with the pressure controller's inlet.

A film forming method is provided. In the film forming method, a mask is prepared based on a measurement result of a surface state of a substrate. The mask is transferred into a process chamber and the substrate is transferred into the process chamber. Then, a film is formed on a back surface of the substrate while the mask is disposed onto the back surface of the substrate.