A system includes an electrode. The electrode includes a showerhead having a first stem portion and a head portion. A plurality of dielectric layers is vertically stacked between the electrode and a first surface of a conducting structure. The plurality of dielectric layers includes M dielectric layers arranged adjacent to the head portion and P dielectric portions arranged around the first stem portion. The plurality of dielectric layers defines a first gap between the electrode and one of the plurality of dielectric layers, a second gap between adjacent ones of the plurality of dielectric layers, and a third gap between a last one of the plurality of dielectric layers and the first surface. A number of the plurality of dielectric layers and sizes of the first gap, the second gap, and the third gap are selected to prevent parasitic plasma between the first surface and the electrode.

There is provided a plasma generating device that includes a first electrode connected to a high-frequency power supply, and a second electrode to be grounded, a buffer structure configured to form a buffer chamber that accommodates the first and second electrodes wherein the first electrode and the second electrode are alternately arranged such that a number of electrodes of the first electrode and the second electrode are in an odd number of three or more in total, and wherein the second electrode is used in common for two of the first electrode being respectively adjacent to the second electrode used in common, and wherein a gas supply port that supplies gas into a process chamber is installed on a wall surface of the buffer structure.

A method of attracting an object to a mounting table is provided. The object is a substrate, an edge ring, or a combination of the substrate and the edge ring. The mounting table is provided with an electrostatic chuck including electrodes. After the object is placed on the electrostatic chuck, n-phase alternating current (AC) voltages (n≥2) are applied to the electrodes. Each phase voltage of the n-phase AC voltages has a phase different from each other, and the phase voltage of the n-phase AC voltages is applied based on a self-bias voltage of the object.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a balun having a first unbalanced terminal, a second unbalanced terminal, a first balanced terminal, and a second balanced terminal, a grounded vacuum container, a first electrode electrically connected to the first balanced terminal, a second electrode electrically connected to the second balanced terminal, and a ground electrode arranged in the vacuum container and grounded.

Systems and methods for multi-level pulsing of a parameter and multi-level pulsing of a frequency of a radio frequency (RF) signal are described. The parameter is pulsed from a low level to a high level while the frequency is pulsed from a low level to a high level. The parameter and the frequency are simultaneously pulsed to increase a rate of processing a wafer, to increase mask selectivity, and to reduce angular spread of ions within a plasma chamber.

Forming a protective coating ex situ in an atomic layer deposition process to coat one or more chamber components subsequently installed in a reaction chamber provides a number of benefits over more conventional coating methods such as in situ deposition of an undercoat. In certain cases the protective coating may have a particular composition such as aluminum oxide, aluminum fluoride, aluminum nitride, yttrium oxide, and/or yttrium fluoride. The protective coating may help reduce contamination on wafers processed using the coated chamber component. Further, the protective coating may act to stabilize the processing conditions within the reaction chamber, thereby achieving very stable/uniform processing results over the course of processing many batches of wafers, and minimizing radical loss. Also described are a number of techniques that may be used to restore the protective coating after the coated chamber component is used to process semiconductor wafers.

A separated gas inlet structure for blocking plasma backflow includes a gas inlet flange and an upper gas inlet nozzle and a lower gas inlet nozzle made of ceramic materials. The upper gas inlet nozzle is coaxially nested or stacked at the top of the lower gas inlet nozzle; a broken line type gas inlet channel is in the upper gas inlet nozzle and the lower gas inlet nozzle and the gas inlet channel includes an upper axial channel, a radial channel, a lower axial channel and a gas outlet; the radial channel or the lower axial channel is at a mounting matching part of the upper gas inlet nozzle and the lower gas inlet nozzle; and the top of the lower axial channel points to a bottom wall surface of the upper gas inlet nozzle.

A separated gas inlet structure for blocking plasma backflow includes a gas inlet flange and an upper gas inlet nozzle and a lower gas inlet nozzle made of ceramic materials. The upper gas inlet nozzle is coaxially nested or stacked at the top of the lower gas inlet nozzle; a broken line type gas inlet channel is in the upper gas inlet nozzle and the lower gas inlet nozzle and the gas inlet channel includes an upper axial channel, a radial channel, a lower axial channel and a gas outlet; the radial channel or the lower axial channel is at a mounting matching part of the upper gas inlet nozzle and the lower gas inlet nozzle; and the top of the lower axial channel points to a bottom wall surface of the upper gas inlet nozzle.

This plasma processing apparatus for performing plasma processing on an end part of a substrate includes a processing container, a substrate supporting member configured to support a portion of the substrate and to which a high frequency power is applied, at least a side of the substrate supporting member being composed of a dielectric, an opposing dielectric member composed of a dielectric and disposed to oppose the substrate supporting member, and a gas supply configured to supply a processing gas for generating plasma on at least the end part of the substrate. The plasma processing apparatus further includes a side ground electrode provided at a side of the substrate so as to be close to the substrate to such an extent that an electrical coupling is formed between an end surface of the substrate and the side ground electrode, the side ground electrode having a ground potential.

The present inventive concept is a substrate processing method in which processing steps are carried out on a substrate supported on a support unit in a processing space that is divided into a first processing area and a second processing area, the substrate processing method comprising: a step in which a first gas and a first purge gas are sprayed in the first processing area; and a step in which a second purge gas and a second gas are sequentially sprayed in the second processing area.