Patent ID: 11901166
Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  C | IPC C  H

Claim 7:
8. A magnetron sputtering method comprising:
storing a substrate in a vacuum chamber;
reciprocating magnet arrays, by a plurality of sputtering mechanisms, each including a target having one surface facing the vacuum chamber, a magnet array, and a moving mechanism, between a first position and a second position along a linear path on the other surface of the target in order to sputter the target, moving directions of the magnet arrays intersecting one another;
forming plasma by supplying power from a power supply to a target of each of selected sputtering mechanisms among the plurality of sputtering mechanisms so that the selected sputtering mechanisms perform film formation on the substrate, the other sputtering mechanisms being unselected sputtering mechanisms;
supplying a gas for plasma formation into the vacuum chamber by a gas supplier; and
for the film formation, stopping each of magnet arrays of at least two unselected sputtering mechanisms at a position distant from a selected sputtering mechanism between the first position and the second position, wherein extension lines from moving paths of the magnet arrays of said at least two unselected sputtering mechanisms intersect an extension line from a moving path of a magnet array of said selected sputtering mechanism in plan view, wherein the position distant from the selected sputtering mechanism is a position farther from the selected sputtering mechanism between the first position and the second position.