Advanced Power Supplies designed for Plasma Deposition and Etching

Abstract

AbstractPlasma deposition and etching processes are used for a wide range of applications as for example the production of semiconductor circuits, flat panel displays, solar cells, architectural glass and data storage media. To fulfill the special needs of each single process stable DC, MF and RF process power ranging from 50W to 200kW is needed.All generators need a high precision process control and a supreme arc management with adaptable parameters to provide minimal disturbances in the plasma process and to obtain optimized results in terms of film quality, homogeneity and uniformity over the whole substrate. The fast and flexible arc handling leads to an improvement in the film quality by minimizing flaws and defects and enables the use of very high sputter rates.To fit DC process demands a new concept for a modular DC system has been realized where up to four 30kW modules can be combined using master slave concept. The arc management and control of the DC module has an intelligent control enabling arc detection times of less than 1μs and a residual energy delivered to the process of only 6 mJ per kW.For MF processes a fast and effective arc management is an even more important tool for keeping reactive processes stable. The new generation of MF power supplies enables arc detection and shut off times of 5μs with a residual energy delivered to the process of only 5 mJ per kilowatt. This yields the additional advantage that even when the cathode material is almost used up and consequently the arc probability increases, the low residual energy values contribute to an extended service life of the cathode and to better utilization of the target material.Essentially, the outstanding feature of effective arc management is an undisturbed plasma during the whole operation time. The fast arc suppression minimizes the interruption in the sputtering process to negligibly small values. However, because arcs also serve to remove unwanted materials on the cathode, power supplies must be able to control and regulate the arc energy precisely. MF power supplies are available for process power up to 200kW.RF systems are based on two different concepts to fit the broad power range between 50W and 50kW. For the low energy range a fully transistorized and μC‐controlled RF generator was developed. This generator has been designed for a max. power of 3kW. Important features are the compact size, robustness, reliability and easy maintenanceTo have a cost effective design for a high power RF generator in this power range an oscillator ‐ amplifier concept has been chosen with a solid state driver in combination with a tube type end stage amplifier.To fit todays demands for advanced etching a dual frequency system consisting of a 13.6 MHz and a 3.4 MHz unit was developed. This enables the possibility to separately control plasma density and ion energy of the discharge.