Patent ID: 9263350
Filing Date: 2016-02-16
CPC Classification: C23C,H01J,H01L

Claim Text:
1. A method of cyclic plasma-assisted semiconductor deposition processing in multiple stations in a process chamber of a substrate processing apparatus, the method comprising: a) providing substrates at each of the multiple stations; b) distributing RF power to multiple stations to thereby generate a plasma in the stations, wherein the RF power is distributed according to a RF power parameter that is adjusted to reduce station to station variations; c) tuning a frequency of the RF power, wherein tuning the frequency includes: d) depositing a thin film on the substrate at each station, wherein: the thin film is produced during a single ALD cycle, (b) through (d) are repeatedly performed, each time during a new ALD cycle of the semiconductor deposition processing, each ALD cycle comprises igniting the plasma and temporarily delivering one or more process gases to the process chamber, the station-to-station distribution of the RF power parameter is not changed over the multiple ALD cycles, and the tuning in (c) produces a first RF power frequency in one ALD cycle and a second RF power frequency in another ALD cycle, and wherein the first and second RF power frequencies are different.