The invention relates to a plasma source (1) for depositing a coating onto a substrate (9), which is connectable to a power source (P) and includes: an electrode (2); a magnetic assembly (4) located circumferentially relative to said electrode and including a set of magnets mutually connected by a magnetic bracket (46) including a first and second central magnet (43, 44) and at least one head magnet (45); and an electrically insulating enclosure (5) arranged such as to surround the electrode and the magnets.

A system is disclosed, including a processing chamber for a deposition process; a cathode within the chamber, configured to introduce a sputter gas and a reactive gas adjacent to a target; a substrate holder, disposed opposite the cathode within the processing chamber, configured to secure a substrate to receive a deposition from the target; and a control system configured to monitor a target voltage and to control a flow rate of the reactive gas to maintain the target voltage within a desired range during the deposition process. Methods and devices for deposition processes are also disclosed.

A semiconductor device manufacturing method, including: mounting substrates on a mounting table within a processing chamber along a rotation direction of the table; starting to supply a first-element-containing gas to a first region in the chamber along the rotation direction, while rotating the table and exhausting the processing chamber; starting to supply a second-element-containing gas to a second region in the chamber; starting to generate, by a plasma generating unit in the second region, plasma of the second-element-containing gas in the second region to have a first activity; and forming a thin film containing first and second elements on the substrates by rotating the table to cause the substrates to sequentially pass through the first and second regions in turn so that a first-element-containing layer is formed in the first region and is modified in the second region by generating plasma having a second activity higher than the first activity.

The embodiments described herein generally relate to a substrate support assembly for use in a plasma processing chamber to provide non-uniform gas flow flowing between the substrate support assembly and sidewalls of the plasma processing chamber. In one embodiment, a substrate support assembly includes a substrate support assembly including a substrate support body defining at least a first side of the substrate support body, and a corner region and a center region formed in the first side of the substrate support body, wherein the corner region has a corner width that is smaller than a center width of the center region, the widths defined between a center axis and the first side of the substrate support body.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a plasma chamber design that allows extremely symmetrical electrical, thermal, and gas flow conductance through the chamber. By providing such symmetry, plasma formed within the chamber naturally has improved uniformity across the surface of a substrate disposed in a processing region of the chamber. Further, other chamber additions, such as providing the ability to manipulate the gap between upper and lower electrodes as well as between a gas inlet and a substrate being processed, allows better control of plasma processing and uniformity as compared to conventional systems.

A high frequency plasma apparatus includes a reaction chamber, a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of feed points located at one of the two electrodes at least. The feed points are used to simultaneously generate a first standing wave and a second standing wave, with different temporal and spatial patterns. By adjusting amplitudes of the two standing waves and the temporal and spatial phase differences between the two standing waves appropriately, plasma uniformity of the high frequency plasma apparatus can be effectively improved.

A gas ejector of a gas supply apparatus includes a nozzle portion. The opening of a first-stage restricting cylinder constituting the nozzle portion has a circular cross-sectional shape with a diameter r1. A second-stage restricting cylinder is continuously formed with the first-stage restricting cylinder along a Z direction. The opening of the second-stage restricting cylinder has a circular cross-sectional shape with a diameter r2, and supplies a source gas supplied from the first-stage restricting cylinder to a low-vacuum processing chamber below. At this time, the diameter r2 is set to satisfy “r2>r1”.

A method is for depositing silicon nitride by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD). The method includes providing a PECVD apparatus including a chamber and a substrate support disposed within the chamber, positioning a substrate on the substrate support, introducing a nitrogen gas (N.sub.2) precursor into the chamber, applying a high frequency (HF) RF power and a low frequency (LF) RF power to sustain a plasma in the chamber, introducing a silane precursor into the chamber while the HF and LF RF powers are being applied so that the silane precursor forms part of the plasma being sustained, and subsequently removing the LF RF power or reducing the LF RF power by at least 90% while continuing to sustain the plasma so that silicon nitride is deposited onto the substrate by PECVD.

An RF antenna structure of an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) processing apparatus that includes a main container 10 that houses a substrate to be processed S to perform plasma processing, a substrate mounting unit 20 on which the substrate to be processed S is mounted in the main container 10, an exhaust system 30 that discharges gas from inside of the main container 10, one or more dielectric windows 100 that form an upper window of the main container 10, a dielectric supporting unit 400 that is coupled to an upper end of the main container 10 and supports the dielectric window 100 to seal the inside of the main container 10, and one or more RF antennas 40 which are installed to correspond to the dielectric windows 100 outside the main container 10 and to which RF power is applied to form induced electric field in the main container 10, wherein the RF antenna 40 has a plate structure having width and thickness and is at least partly a combination of a horizontal antenna portion 41 and a vertical antenna portion 42, wherein a normal N of a surface of the RF antenna having the width in the horizontal antenna portion 41 is perpendicular to a top surface of the dielectric window 100 and a normal N of a surface of the RF antenna having the width in the vertical antenna portion 42 is parallel to the top surface of the dielectric window 100, is provided, so it is possible to minimize power loss due to a support structure by the replacement of a dielectric supporting structure at a region where an antenna is installed, with ceramic.

A magnetron sputtering electrode for use in a rotatable cylindrical magnetron sputtering device, the electrode including a cathode body defining a magnet receiving chamber and a cylindrical target surrounding the cathode body. The target is rotatable about the cathode body. A magnet arrangement is received within the magnet receiving chamber, the magnet arrangement including a plurality of magnets. A shunt is secured to the cathode body and proximate to a side of the magnet arrangement, the shunt extending in a plane substantially parallel to the side of the magnet arrangement. A method of fine-tuning a magnetron sputtering electrode in a rotatable cylindrical magnetron sputtering device is also disclosed.