Embodiments of apparatus for high pressure plasma processing are provided herein. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes an isolator plate and grounding bracket for a substrate support, such as an electrostatic chuck, in a plasma processing chamber. In some embodiments, apparatus for high pressure plasma processing includes: an electrostatic chuck; a ground return bracket spaced apart from the electrostatic chuck; and a dielectric plate disposed between the electrostatic chuck and the ground return bracket.

In a processing chamber, a processing target substrate is placed and a substrate processing is performed. A holder is configured to store therein an ionic liquid as some or all of components to be consumed or degraded by the substrate processing within the processing chamber.

A method for cleaning contacts on a substrate incorporates ion control to selectively remove oxides. The method includes exposing the substrate to ions of an inert gas, supplying a first RF frequency of a first bias power supply to a substrate support, supplying a second RF frequency of a second bias power supply to a substrate support, and adjusting a first power level of the first RF frequency and a second power level of the second RF frequency to selectively remove oxide from at least one contact on the substrate while inhibiting sputtering of polymer material wherein the oxide removal is selective over removal of polymer material surrounding the at least one contact.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate area provided herein. For example, methods for enhancing surface hydrophilicity on a substrate comprise a) supplying, using a remote plasma source, water vapor plasma to a processing volume of a plasma processing chamber to treat a bonding surface of the substrate, b) supplying at least one of microwave power or RF power at a frequency from about 1 kHz to 10 GHz and a power from about 1 kW to 10 kW to the plasma processing chamber to maintain the water vapor plasma within the processing volume during operation, and c) continuing a) and b) until the bonding surface of the substrate has a hydrophilic contact angle of less than 10°.

A metal-containing photoresist film may be deposited on a semiconductor substrate using a dry deposition technique. Unintended metal-containing photoresist material may form on internal surfaces of a process chamber during deposition, bevel and backside cleaning, baking, development, or etch operations. An in situ dry chamber clean may be performed to remove the unintended metal-containing photoresist material by exposure to an etch gas. The dry chamber clean may be performed at elevated temperatures without striking a plasma. In some embodiments, the dry chamber clean may include pumping/purging and conditioning operations.

The present disclosure describes an apparatus. The apparatus includes a chuck for placing an object thereon, a gas passage extending along a periphery of an outer sidewall of the chuck and separating the chuck into an inner portion and a sidewall portion, and a plurality of gas holes through the sidewall portion and configured to connect a gas external to the chuck to the gas passage.

Provided herein are methods and apparatus for processing a substrate by exposing the substrate to plasma to simultaneously (i) etch features in an underlying material (e.g., which includes one or more dielectric materials), and (ii) deposit a upper mask protector layer on a mask positioned over the dielectric material, where the upper mask protector layer forms on top of the mask in a selective vertically-oriented directional deposition. Such methods and apparatus may be used to achieve infinite etch selectivity, even when etching high aspect ratio features.

An electrically and magnetically enhanced ionized physical vapor deposition (I-PVD) magnetron apparatus and method is provided for sputtering material from a cathode target on a substrate, and in particular, for sputtering ceramic and diamond-like coatings. The electrically and magnetically enhanced magnetron sputtering source has unbalanced magnetic fields that couple the cathode target and additional electrode together. The additional electrode is electrically isolated from ground and connected to a power supply that can generate positive, negative, or bipolar high frequency voltages, and is preferably a radio frequency (RF) power supply. RF discharge near the additional electrode increases plasma density and a degree of ionization of sputtered material atoms.

According to the present invention there is provided a method of depositing a hydrogenated silicon carbon nitride (SiCN:H) film onto a substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) comprising the steps of: providing the substrate in a chamber; introducing silane (SiH.sub.4), a hydrocarbon gas or vapour, nitrogen gas (N.sub.2), and hydrogen gas (H.sub.2) into the chamber; and sustaining a plasma in the chamber so as to deposit SiCN:H onto the substrate by PECVD at a process temperature of less than about 200° C.

In an embodiment, a method for nitriding a substrate is provided. The method includes flowing a nitrogen-containing source and a carrier gas into a plasma processing source coupled to a chamber such that a flow rate of the nitrogen-containing source is from about 3% to 20% of a flow rate of the carrier gas; generating an inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) in the plasma processing source by operating an ICP source, the ICP comprising a radical species formed from the nitrogen-containing source, the carrier gas, or both; and nitriding the substrate within the chamber, wherein nitriding includes operating a heat source within the chamber at a temperature from about 150° C. to about 650° C. to heat the substrate; maintaining a pressure of the chamber from about 50 mTorr to about 2 Torr; introducing the ICP to the chamber; and adjusting a characteristic of the substrate by exposing the substrate to the radical species.