A plasma etching method of an embodiment includes performing etching on a silicon-containing film by using plasma of a fluorocarbon gas. The fluorocarbon gas used in the plasma etching method has a composition, regarding carbon and fluorine, represented by C.sub.xF.sub.y, wherein x and y are numbers satisfying x≥7 and y≥x, and includes a benzene ring structure composed of six carbon atoms.

Provided is a vacuum processing method capable of preventing particles from adhering to a wafer due to a titanium (Ti)-based reaction product. The vacuum processing method is applicable to a plasma processing apparatus including: a sample stage disposed in a processing chamber inside a vacuum container, on which a wafer having a titanium (Ti)-containing film is placed; a coil supplied with a radio frequency power for forming plasma in the processing chamber; and a heating device that emits an electromagnetic wave for heating the wafer placed on an upper surface of the sample stage. The vacuum processing method includes a step of etching the titanium (Ti)-containing film, and a step of cleaning an inside of the processing chamber by using a mixed gas of nitrogen trifluoride (NF.sub.3) gas, argon gas, and a chlorine gas.

A method for plasma processing includes: sustaining a plasma in a plasma processing chamber, the plasma processing chamber including a first radio frequency (RF) electrode and a second RF electrode, where sustaining the plasma includes: coupling an RF source signal to the first RF electrode; and coupling a bias signal between the first RF electrode and the second RF electrode, the bias signal having a bipolar DC (B-DC) waveform including a plurality of B-DC pulses, each of the B-DC pulses including: a negative bias duration during which the pulse has negative polarity relative to a reference potential, a positive bias duration during which the pulse has positive polarity relative to the reference potential, and a neutral bias duration during which the pulse has neutral polarity relative to the reference potential.

The heater component (1) has a substrate part (2), and a thin coating heater (4) which is equipped outside this substrate part (2) and generates heat by power supply. The thin coating heater (4) is formed of a thermal sprayed coating. The thin coating heater (4) has a heater body (10) and a heater extension part (11). The heater body (10) is arranged on a first end face (2a) of the substrate part (2). The heater extension part (11) is extended from the heater body (10) to a second end face (2b) of the substrate part (2) through a side surface (2c) of the substrate part (2). A tip part (11s) of the heater extension part (11) is a heater power supplying part (12) for supplying electric power to the heater body (10).

The present invention relates to methods of delayering a semiconductor integrated circuit die or wafer. In at least one aspect, the method includes exposing a die or wafer to plasma of an etching gas and detecting exposure of one or more metal layers within the die. In one aspect of the invention, the plasma of the etching gas is non-selective and removes all materials in a layer at about the same rate. In another aspect of the invention, two different plasmas of corresponding etching gases are employed with each plasma of the etching gas being selective, thus necessitating the sequential use of both plasmas of corresponding etching gases to remove all materials in a layer.

A part is adapted to be used in a semiconductor processing equipment. The part includes a substrate and a protective coating. The protective coating covers at least a part of the substrate, is made of silicon carbide, and has an atomic ratio of carbon in the protective coating increases in a direction away from the substrate while an atomic ratio of silicon in the protective coating decreases in the direction. The atomic ratio of silicon in the protective coating is larger than that of the carbon near the substrate, and the atomic ratio of silicon in the protective coating is smaller than that of carbon near the outer surface of the protective coating. A method for making the part is also provided.

An etching method according to one embodiment, includes alternately switching a first step and a second step. The first step introduces a first gas containing a fluorine atom without supplying radiofrequency voltage to form a surface layer on a surface of a target cooled at a temperature equal to or lower than a liquefaction temperature of the first gas. The second step introduces a second gas gaseous at the first temperature and different from the first gas, and supplies the radiofrequency voltage, to generate plasma from the second gas to etch the target by sputtering using the plasma.

A plasma processing apparatus including: a chamber; a plasma generation unit configured to generate a plasma in the chamber; a stage 111 for placing a conveying carrier 10, the stage provided in the chamber; a cover 124 for covering at least part of the conveying carrier placed on the stage; a relative position change unit capable of changing a relative distance between the cover 124 and the stage 111 to a first distance and to a second distance smaller than the first distance; a determination unit configured to determine a placed state of the conveying carrier 10; and a control unit. The determination unit determines the placed state of the conveying carrier while the distance between the cover 124 and the stage 111 is the first distance, and the plasma processing is performed while the distance between the cover 124 and the stage 111 is the second distance.

Disclosed are a method of monitoring a semiconductor device fabrication process and a method of fabricating a semiconductor device using the same. The monitoring method may include determining a normalization range of a target byproduct, which is a measurement target of byproducts produced in a chamber by an etching process, the byproducts including the target byproduct and a non-target byproduct, the target byproduct including first and second target byproducts, which are respectively produced by and before the etching process on a to-be-processed layer, obtaining a first index from a ratio of the target byproduct to the non-target byproduct, obtaining a second index by subtracting an emission intensity of the second target byproduct from the first index, obtaining a third index by integrating the second index on a time interval, and estimating a result of the etching process and presence or absence of a failure, based on the third index.

Processes for surface treatment of a workpiece are provided. In one example implementation, a method can include conducting a pre-treatment process on a processing chamber to generate a hydrogen radical affecting layer on a surface of the processing chamber prior to performing a hydrogen radical based surface treatment process on a workpiece in the processing chamber. In this manner, a pretreatment process can be conducted to condition a processing chamber to increase uniformity of hydrogen radical exposure to a workpiece.