An plasma etching method for etching a film layer includes a plurality of times repeating a step set including a first step of introducing a gas containing hydrogen fluoride into a processing chamber and supplying hydrogen fluoride molecules to the surface of an oxide film, a second step of exhausting the interior of the processing chamber in vacuum to remove the hydrogen fluoride, and a third step of introducing a gas containing hydrogen nitride into the processing chamber and supplying hydrogen nitride to the surface of the oxide film to form a compound layer containing nitrogen, hydrogen, and fluorine on the surface of the film layer, and removing the compound layer formed on the surface of the film layer. Foreign object contamination is prevented by inhibiting mixing of hydrogen fluoride gas and hydrogen nitride gas, and the etching amount is controlled by the number of times of repeating application thereof.

A vacuum apparatus according to an embodiment includes a chamber configured air-tightly, a vacuum pump configured to exhaust gas from the chamber, and an exhaustion structure placed between the chamber and an inlet port of the vacuum pump and having a ventilation path surrounded by a wall of the exhaustion structure. The vacuum pump exhausts gas from the chamber through the ventilation path of the exhaustion structure. A layer of thermal energy absorbing material is formed on at least part of an inner surface of the wall of the exhaustion structure to absorb energy of thermal radiation emitted from the inlet port of the vacuum pump.

A disclosed metal oxide thin film formation apparatus is equipped with: a vacuum vessel; a treatment vessel which is disposed inside the vacuum vessel, is capable of horizontally rotating about a central axis inclined from the horizontal direction, and has an opening on one end face thereof; an oxidizing gas supply device which supplies an oxidizing gas into the vacuum vessel; an organic metal gas supply device which is inserted inward from the opening and supplies an organic metal gas; and a control unit for executing a series of steps, namely, an organic metal gas supply step, a first gas discharge step, an oxidizing gas supply step, and a second gas discharge step, and repeating the series of steps through for a predetermined number of times in accordance with the film thickness of the metal oxide thin film to be formed on the surfaces of microparticles.

In a particle beam apparatus and a method for operating a particle beam apparatus, the particle beam apparatus has a column having a particle-beam optical system for generating a particle beam, to thereby expose a desired pattern in a vacuum sample chamber in an exposure operation. In a cleaning operation, a regulable gas stream having photodissociatable gas is fed to the column and/or the vacuum sample chamber via a gas-feed system. The photodissociation of the supplied gas is brought about in the cleaning operation with the aid of a plurality of light sources distributed spatially in the column and/or in the vacuum sample chamber. In the cleaning operation, individual light sources are able to be switched on and off selectively with respect to time via a control unit connected to the light sources, in order to clean individual elements in the column and/or in the vacuum sample chamber in targeted fashion.

In a vacuum apparatus including an ultrahigh vacuum evacuation pump, the ultrahigh vacuum evacuation pump is provided with a rod-shaped cathode including a non-evaporable getter alloy, a cylindrical anode disposed so as to surround the cathode, and a coil or a ring-shaped permanent magnet disposed so as to sandwich upper and lower openings of the cylindrical anode and surround the rod-shaped cathode. As a result, it is possible to reduce the size and weight of the ultrahigh vacuum evacuation pump and to dispose the vacuum evacuation pump at a desired location in the vacuum apparatus.

The invention is directed to a charged particle beam apparatus that enables temperature maintenance in a cooling unit provided inside a vacuum application apparatus using a refrigerant. The charged particle beam apparatus includes a cooling tank that contains a refrigerant for cooling a cooling unit, a cooling pipe that supplies the refrigerant from the cooling tank to the cooling unit, and a unit that leads the refrigerant to liquefy when the refrigerant is biased to a solid.

An apparatus provided with a wafer processing chamber that houses a wafer supporting mechanism supporting a wafer and is used to irradiate the wafer supported by the wafer supporting mechanism with an ion beam and a transport mechanism housing chamber that houses a transport mechanism provided underneath the wafer processing chamber and used for moving the wafer supporting mechanism in a substantially horizontal direction, wherein an aperture used for moving the wafer supporting mechanism along with a coupling member coupling the wafer supporting mechanism to the transport mechanism is formed in the direction of movement of the transport mechanism in a partition wall separating the wafer processing chamber from the transport mechanism housing chamber.

The invention relates to charged particle beam generator comprising a charged particle source for generating a charged particle beam, a collimator system comprising a collimator structure with a plurality of collimator electrodes for collimating the charged particle beam, a beam source vacuum chamber comprising the charged particle source, and a generator vacuum chamber comprising the collimator structure and the beam source vacuum chamber within a vacuum, wherein the collimator system is positioned outside the beam source vacuum chamber. Each of the beam source vacuum chamber and the generator vacuum chamber may be provided with a vacuum pump.

An ion milling apparatus includes a sample holder, a vacuum chamber, an evacuation section, a vacuum gauge, a heater, a gas inlet assembly, and a control section. The evacuation section vents gas in the interior space of the vacuum chamber. The vacuum gauge measures the pressure in the interior space of the vacuum chamber. The heater heats the sample holder. The gas inlet assembly admits a dry gas containing no moisture into the interior space of the vacuum chamber. When the pressure in the interior space has reached below a given pressure, the control section controls the gas inlet assembly based on information about the pressure in the interior space so as to admit the dry gas into the vacuum chamber.

Methods for depositing ultrathin films by atomic layer deposition with reduced wafer-to-wafer variation are provided. Methods involve exposing the substrate to soak gases including one or more gases used during a plasma exposure operation of an atomic layer deposition cycle prior to the first atomic layer deposition cycle to heat the substrate to the deposition temperature.