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.

This ion milling device is provided with a vacuum chamber (105), an exhaust device (101) for evacuating the interior of the vacuum chamber, a sample stage (103) for supporting a sample (102) to be irradiated inside the vacuum chamber, a heater (107) for heating the interior of the vacuum chamber, a gas source (106) for introducing into the vacuum chamber a gas serving as a heating medium, and a controller (110) for controlling the gas source, the controller controlling the gas source so that the vacuum chamber internal pressure is in a predetermined state during heating by the heater. This enables the control in a short time of the temperature for suppressing condensation, or the like, occurring at atmospheric release after cooling and ion milling a sample.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to deposition of high transparency, high-density carbon films for patterning applications. In one embodiment, a method of forming a carbon film on a substrate is provided. The method includes flowing a hydrocarbon-containing gas mixture into a process chamber having a substrate positioned on an electrostatic chuck, wherein the substrate is maintained at a temperature of about 10 C. to about 20 C. and a chamber pressure of about 0.5 mTorr to about 10 Torr, and generating a plasma by applying a first RF bias to the electrostatic chuck to deposit a diamond-like carbon film containing about 60% or greater hybridized sp.sup.3 atoms on the substrate, wherein the first RF bias is provided at a power of about 1800 Watts to about 2200 Watts and at a frequency of about 40 MHz to about 162 MHz.

At timing t0, a brake gas (raw material gas) starts to be supplied to an ion beam generator, and the brake gas is fed into a turbo molecular pump. After timing t1, a vent valve is opened intermittently to feed atmospheric air into the turbo molecular pump. The brake gas may be different from the raw material gas. The brake gas is supplied using a gas supply system.

The invention provides an electron beam apparatus that reduces a time required for an electron gun chamber to which a sputter ion pump and a non-evaporable getter pump are connected to reach an extreme high vacuum state. The electron beam apparatus includes an electron gun configured to emit an electron beam and the electron gun chamber to which the sputter ion pump and the non-evaporable getter pump are connected. The electron beam apparatus further includes a gas supply unit configured to supply at least one of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide to the electron gun 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.

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.

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.

Disclosed herein is a plasma etching method for plasma-etching a ground surface of a wafer after the wafer with a tape attached to its lower surface is ground. The plasma etching method includes a drying step of applying heat to the tape to remove water present in the tape, an electrostatic holding step of electrostatically holding the wafer by an electrostatic force generated by supplying DC power to electrodes of an electrostatic chuck, after the drying step, and an etching step of reducing the pressure of a reduced-pressure chamber and plasma-etching the ground surface of the wafer by a reaction gas brought into a plasma state, after the electrostatic holding step.

In order to observe a water-containing sample with excellent convenience under an air atmosphere or a gas atmosphere, or under a desired pressure, in the present invention, there is provided an observation support unit for observation by irradiating the sample disposed in a non-vacuum space separated by a diaphragm from an inner space of a charged particle optical lens barrel that generates a charged particle beam, with the charged particle beam. The observation support unit includes a main body portion for covering a hole portion that forms an observation region where the sample is observed, and the sample, and the observation support unit is directly mounted between the sample and the diaphragm, that is, on the sample.