Patent ID: 9536749
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: H01J,H01L

Claim:
1. A method for setting operational parameters of a plasma processing system used for etching a substrate layer when placed on an electrode of the plasma processing system, comprising: receiving measured ion energy of ions within a plasma chamber; setting a pulsing frequency of a radio frequency (RF) generator, the RF generator producing an RF pulse signal having the pulsing frequency, the pulsing frequency switching between a low power level and a high power level, wherein the high power level is defined between an envelope having a rise transition and a fall transition; setting a slope parameter for modifying the RF pulse signal based on the measured ion energy, the slope parameter being set for each of the rise transition and fall transition of the envelope, the slope parameter defining a reduction in a rate of rise for the rise transition and a reduction in a rate of fall for the fall transition, wherein the reduction of the rate of rise and rate of fall shapes a reduced pulse width of the envelope at the high power level, wherein the high power level has a shorter duration than the low power level during the pulsing frequency; and supplying the RF pulse signal modified by the slope parameter to the electrode of the plasma processing system, wherein an increase in low energy ions occurs during the rise transition and the fall transition when the RF pulse signal is modified by the slope parameter, and high ion energy is produced during the reduced pulse width of the envelope, wherein the low energy ions have a lower energy than high energy ions having the high ion energy.