A discharge method includes discharging discharge products including a first discharge gas and solid by-products from a process chamber, in which a substrate processing process is performed in a vacuum state, into an inside of a collection device, collecting the solid by-products in the collection device, introducing a portion of a second discharge gas discharged from a load lock chamber into the collection device, and vaporizing the solid by-products in the collection device and discharging vaporized solid by-products to an outside of the collection device.

A film forming method of forming a carbon film includes: cleaning an interior of a processing container by using oxygen-containing plasma in a state in which no substrate is present inside the processing container; subsequently, extracting and removing oxygen inside the processing container by using plasma in the state in which no substrate is present inside the processing container; and subsequently, loading a substrate into the processing container and forming the carbon film on the substrate through plasma CVD using a processing gas including a carbon-containing gas, wherein the cleaning, the extracting and removing the oxygen, and the forming the carbon film are repeatedly performed.

An exclusion ring for semiconductor wafer processing includes an outer circumferential segment having a first thickness and an inner circumferential segment having a second thickness, with the first thickness being greater than the second thickness. The top surface of an inner circumferential segment and the top surface of the outer circumferential segment define a common top surface for the exclusion ring. A plurality of flow paths is formed within the outer circumferential segment, with each of the flow paths extending radially through the plurality of flow paths provides for exhaust of a wafer edge gas from the pocket where a wafer has an edge thereof disposed below part of the inner circumferential portion. The exhausting of the wafer edge gas from the pocket prevents up-and-down movement of the exclusion ring when bowed wafers are processed.

A processing chamber such as a plasma etch chamber can perform deposition and etch operations, where byproducts of the deposition and etch operations can build up in a vacuum pump system fluidly coupled to the processing chamber. A vacuum pump system may have multiple roughing pumps so that etch gases can be diverted a roughing pump and deposition precursors can be diverted to another roughing pump. A divert line may route unused deposition precursors through a separate roughing pump. Deposition byproducts can be prevented from forming by incorporating one or more gas ejectors or venturi pumps at an outlet of a primary pump in a vacuum pump system. Cleaning operations, such as waferless automated cleaning operations, using certain clean chemistries may remove deposition byproducts before or after etch operations.

There is provided a plasma generating device that includes a first electrode connected to a high-frequency power supply, and a second electrode to be grounded, a buffer structure configured to form a buffer chamber that accommodates the first and second electrodes wherein the first electrode and the second electrode are alternately arranged such that a number of electrodes of the first electrode and the second electrode are in an odd number of three or more in total, and wherein the second electrode is used in common for two of the first electrode being respectively adjacent to the second electrode used in common, and wherein a gas supply port that supplies gas into a process chamber is installed on a wall surface of the buffer structure.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a microwave output unit, a wave guide tube, a tuner, a demodulation unit, and a calculation unit. The microwave output unit outputs a microwave having power corresponding to setting power while frequency-modulating the microwave in a setting frequency range. The wave guide tube guides the microwave to an antenna of a chamber main body. The tuner is provided in the wave guide tube and adjusts a position of a movable plate. The demodulation unit is provided in the wave guide tube, and acquires travelling wave power and reflected wave power for each frequency. The calculation unit calculates a frequency at which a reflection coefficient, which is calculated on the basis of the travelling wave power and the reflected wave power, for each frequency becomes a minimum point as an absorption frequency.

Methods of cleaning a substrate support comprise: introducing a cleaning gas into a processing chamber containing the substrate support; applying a radio frequency (RF) power to a remote plasma source that is in fluid communication with the processing chamber to establish a reactive etching plasma from the cleaning gas in the processing chamber; reacting deposits on the substrate support with the reactive etching plasma to form a by-products phase; and evacuating the by-products phase from the processing chamber.

A substrate processing apparatus, includes a reaction chamber, a central processing volume within a vertically oriented central processing portion of the reaction chamber, to expose at least one substrate to self-limiting surface reactions in the central processing volume, at least two lateral extensions in the reaction chamber laterally extending from the central processing portion, and an actuator configured to reversibly move at least one substrate between the lateral extension(s) and the central processing volume.

There is provided a substrate processing apparatus that includes a process chamber in which at least one substrate is processed; a gas supplier configured to supply a gas; and a buffer structure. The buffer structure includes at least two plasma generation regions in which gas is converted into plasma by a pair of electrodes connected to a high-frequency power supply and an electrode to be grounded, a first gas supply port that supplies a gas generated in a first plasma generation region among the at least two plasma generation regions, and a second gas supply port that supplies a gas generated in a second plasma generation region among the at least two plasma generation regions.

Methods and systems for forming a structure including multiple carbon layers and structures formed using the method or system are disclosed. Exemplary methods include forming a first carbon layer and a second carbon layer, wherein a density and/or other property of the first carbon layer differs from the corresponding property of the second carbon layer.