A method of forming a semiconductor device includes: forming a fin protruding above a substrate; forming a gate layer over the fin; and patterning the gate layer in a plasma etching tool using a plasma etching process to form a gate over the fin, where patterning the gate layer includes: turning on and off a top radio frequency (RF) source of the plasma etching tool alternately during the plasma etching process; and turning on and off a bottom RF source of the plasma etching tool alternately during the plasma etching process, where there is a timing offset between first time instants when the top RF source is turned on and respective second time instants when the bottom RF source is turned on.

Some embodiments include a thermal management system for a nanosecond pulser. In some embodiments, the thermal management system may include a switch cold plates coupled with switches, a core cold plate coupled with one or more transformers, resistor cold plates coupled with resistors, or tubing coupled with the switch cold plates, the core cold plates, and the resistor cold plates. The thermal management system may include a heat exchanger coupled with the resistor cold plates, the core cold plate, the switch cold plate, and the tubing. The heat exchanger may also be coupled with a facility fluid supply.

Methods and apparatus for forming a barrier layer are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of forming a barrier layer on a substrate includes treating an exposed layer deposited on a substrate and within a feature of the substrate by pulsing a bias power applied to a substrate support supporting the substrate while exposing the layer to a plasma. The exposed layer can be deposited by an atomic layer deposition process, and can be, for example, a tantalum nitride layer. The bias power can be up to 500 watts of RF power at a pulse frequency of about 1 Hz to about 10 kHz. The bias power can be pulsed uniformly or at multiple different levels.

A substrate pedestal includes a thermally conductive substrate support including a mesh, a thermally conductive shaft including a plurality of conductive rods therein, each conductive rod having a first end and a second end, and a sensor. The first end of each conductive rod is electrically coupled to the mesh, and the sensor is disposed between the first and second ends of each conductive rod and configured to detect current flow through each conductive rod.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system for pulsed direct-current (DC) biasing and clamping a substrate. In one embodiment, the system includes a plasma chamber having an electrostatic chuck (ESC) for supporting a substrate. An electrode is embedded in the ESC and is electrically coupled to a biasing and clamping network. The biasing and clamping network includes at least a shaped DC pulse voltage source and a clamping network. The clamping network includes a DC source and a diode, and a resistor. The shaped DC pulse voltage source and the clamping network are connected in parallel. The biasing and clamping network automatically maintains a substantially constant clamping voltage, which is a voltage drop across the electrode and the substrate when the substrate is biased with pulsed DC voltage, leading to improved clamping of the substrate.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a stage for supporting a target object in a chamber defined by a chamber body. The stage includes a lower electrode, an electrostatic chuck provided on the lower electrode, heaters provided in the electrostatic chuck, and terminals electrically connected to the heaters. A conductor pipe electrically connects a high frequency power supply and the lower electrode and extends from the lower electrode to the outside of the chamber body. Power supply lines supply power from a heater controller to the heaters. Filters partially forming the power supply lines prevent the inflow of high frequency power from the heaters to the heater controller. The power supply lines include wirings which respectively connect the terminals and the filters and extend to the outside of the chamber body through an inner bore of the conductor pipe.

A variable voltage generator circuit is described for generating, from a substantially constant supply voltage V.sub.S, a variable high-voltage control voltage V.sub.C for a variable power capacitor (1) having a variable-permittivity dielectric. The control voltage generator circuit comprises a top-up circuit (10) for maintaining the voltage V.sub.Cin on an input capacitor (12) at least at supply voltage V.sub.S, and a bidirectional DC-DC converter circuit (20) having a variable voltage conversion factor G controlled by control input signal (27). The bidirectional DC-DC converter (20) is arranged to convert voltage, at the voltage conversion factor G, between the input capacitor voltage V.sub.Cin and the output voltage V.sub.C. When V.sub.C<G×V.sub.Cin, the DC-DC converter circuit (20) uses charge stored in the input capacitor (12) to charge the capacitive load (1). When V.sub.C>G×V.sub.Cin, the DC-DC converter circuit (20) uses charge stored in the load capacitance (1) to charge the input capacitor (12).

Provided is a filter device including a plurality of coils, a plural of capacitors, and a frame. The coils constitute a plurality of coil groups. Each coil group includes two or more coils. The two or more coils in each coil group are provided such that respective windings of the two or more coils extend spirally about a central axis and respective turns of the two or more coils are sequentially and repeatedly arranged in an axial direction in which the central axis extends. The coil groups are provided coaxially with the central axis. A pitch between the respective turns of the two or more coils of any one coil group among the coil groups is larger than a pitch between the respective turns of the two or more coils of the coil group provided inside the one coil group among the coil groups.

Described herein is a technique capable of capable of uniformly processing a surface of a substrate even when an inductive coupling type substrate processing apparatus is used. According to one aspect of the technique, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus including: a process chamber in which a substrate is processed; a gas supply part configured to supply a gas into the process chamber; a high frequency power supply part configured to supply a high frequency power; a plasma generator including a resonance coil wound on a side of the process chamber, the plasma generator configured to generate a plasma in the process chamber when the high frequency power is supplied to the resonance coil; and a substrate support on which the substrate is placed such that a horizontal center position of the substrate in the process chamber does not overlap with a horizontal center position of the resonance coil.

A method for controlling reflected power in a plasma processing system is provided, including: applying RF power from a first generator to an ESC; applying RF power from a second generator to an edge electrode that surrounds the ESC and is disposed below an edge ring that surrounds the ESC, the RF power from the second generator having a voltage set based on the amount of use of the edge ring, wherein the second generator automatically introduces a phase adjustment so that a phase of the RF power from the second generator substantially matches a phase of the RF power from the first generator; and, adjusting a variable capacitor of a match circuit through which the RF power from the second generator is applied to tune the phase adjustment to a target phase adjustment setting.