An apparatus and method of processing a workpiece is disclosed, where a coating is applied to a workpiece and the workpiece is subsequently subjected to an etching process. These processes are performed by one semiconductor processing apparatus while the workpiece is scanned relative to the apparatus. A precursor is applied to the workpiece by the apparatus. The apparatus then uses plasma, heat or ultraviolet radiation to activate the precursor to form a coating. After the coating is applied, the apparatus is configured to perform the etching process. In certain embodiments, the etching process is a directional etching process.

An apparatus for contactless transportation of a device in a vacuum processing system is described. The apparatus includes: a magnetic transportation arrangement for providing a magnetic levitation force (F.sub.L) for levitating the device, the magnetic transportation arrangement comprising one or more active magnetic units; a sensor for monitoring a motion of the device, and a controller configured for controlling the one or more active magnetic units based on a signal provided by the sensor.

Disclosed is an apparatus and method of processing substrate, which facilitates to improve deposition uniformity of a thin film deposited on a substrate, and to control quality of a thin film, wherein the apparatus includes a process chamber; a substrate supporter for supporting at least one of substrates, wherein the substrate supporter is provided in the bottom of the process chamber; a chamber lid confronting the substrate supporter, the chamber lid for covering an upper side of the process chamber; and a gas distributor for locally distributing activated source gas on the substrate, wherein the gas distributor locally confronting the substrate supporter is provided in the chamber lid, wherein the gas distributor forms plasma by the use of plasma formation gas, and activates the source gas by distributing the source gas to some of plasma area for formation of the plasma.

An apparatus for use in a processing chamber is provided. A consumable is within the processing chamber. A scale is positioned to measure a mass of the consumable.

A film formation device includes a target holder configured to hold a target for emitting sputtering particles in a processing space inside a processing chamber, a sputtering particle emitting part configured to emit the sputtering particles from the target, a sputtering particle shielding plate having a passage hole through which the emitted sputtering particles pass, a shielding member provided to shield the passage hole, a movement mechanism configured to move the shielding member in the horizontal direction, and a controller. The controller controls the shielding member, which has the placement portion on which a substrate is placed, to be moved in one direction of the horizontal direction, and controls the sputtering particles to be emitted from the target. The sputtering particles passed through the passage hole are deposited on the substrate.

This sputtering cathode has a sputtering target having a tubular shape in which the cross-sectional shape thereof has a pair of long side sections facing each other, and an erosion surface facing inward. Using the sputtering target, while moving a body to be film-formed, which has a film formation region having a narrower width than the long side sections of the sputtering target, parallel to one end face of the sputtering target and at a constant speed in a direction perpendicular to the long side sections above a space surrounded by the sputtering target, discharge is performed such that a plasma circulating along the inner surface of the sputtering target is generated, and the inner surface of the long side sections of the sputtering target is sputtered by ions in the plasma generated by a sputtering gas to perform film formation in the film formation region of the body to be film-formed.

A magnetron sputtering device comprising a substrate; a target which forms a cathode in a DC electric field and comprises an electrically conductive mixture for coating the substrate; an anode in the DC electric field; a reaction chamber in which the target and the substrate are arranged. The target is spaced apart from the substrate. The voltage source is configured to generate the DC electric field between the cathode and the anode. The mixture comprises a first material and a second material. The substrate comprises a third material. The first material is an electrically non-conductive solid. The second material is an electrically conductive solid. The third material is an electrically conductive solid.

A film forming method of forming a silicon nitride film on a substrate, which includes a first film and a second film having different incubation times when a source gas containing silicon and a first nitriding gas for nitriding the silicon are supplied, includes: supplying a plasmarized hydrogen gas to the substrate; supplying a processing gas formed of silicon halide to the substrate; forming a thin layer of silicon covering the first film and the second film by alternately and repeatedly performing the supplying the plasmarized hydrogen gas and the supplying the processing gas; forming a thin layer of silicon nitride by supplying a second nitriding gas for nitriding the thin layer of silicon to the substrate; and forming the silicon nitride film on the thin layer of the silicon nitride by supplying the source gas and the first nitriding gas to the substrate.

Apparatus and methods of processing a substrate in a plasma enhanced spatial atomic layer deposition chamber. A substrate is moved through one or more plasma processing regions and one or more non-plasma processing regions while the plasma power is pulsed to prevent a voltage differential on the substrate from exceeding a breakdown voltage of the substrate or device being formed on the substrate.

A film deposition method is provided for filling a recessed pattern formed in a surface of a substrate with a film. In the method, an adsorption blocking group is formed by adsorbing chlorine gas activated by plasma on a top surface of the substrate and an upper portion of the recessed pattern. A source gas that contains one of silicon and a metal, and chlorine, is adsorbed on a lower portion of the recessed pattern where the adsorption blocking group is not formed, by supplying the source gas to the surface of the substrate including the recessed pattern. A molecular layer of a nitride film produced by a reaction of the source gas and a nitriding gas is deposited on the lower portion of the trench by supplying the nitriding gas to the surface of the substrate including the recessed pattern.