Patent ID: 7244474
Filing Date: 2007-07-17
Classification: C23C

Abstract:
1. A process for depositing a film on a surface of a workpiece, comprising the steps of: providing a reactor chamber and a workpiece support within the chamber; providing within the chamber an electrically conductive ion shower grid facing said workpiece support and extending across the diameter of said chamber so as to divide said chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region containing said workpiece support, and providing plural grid orifices through said grid that are dimensioned for creation of a pressure drop in which pressure in said process region is between about five to ten times less than that in said ion generation region; placing a workpiece on said workpiece support in said process region; furnishing a deposition precursor process gas into said ion generation region; evacuating the process region to create a pressure drop through said ion shower grid, whereby the pressure in said process region is at least five to ten times less than the pressure in said ion generation region; depositing a layer of material of a desired thickness on said workpiece by: (a) applying plasma source power to generate a plasma of said deposition precursor species in said ion generation region, and (b) applying a grid potential to said ion shower grid to create a flux of ions from the plasma through said grid and into said process region.