Patent ID: 8288259
Filing Date: 2012-10-16
Classification: H01J,H01L

Abstract:
1. A plasma processing method for introducing impurities into a sample or a film of a surface of the sample, the plasma processing method comprising: placing the sample on a sample electrode within a vacuum chamber; evacuating an interior of the vacuum chamber through a gas outlet of the vacuum chamber; after setting a gas exhaust flow rate from within the vacuum chamber through the gas outlet to zero, supplying gas into the vacuum chamber from a gas inlet which is so provided that a shortest flow passage connecting the gas outlet and the gas inlet of the vacuum chamber to each other avoids an upward space of the sample surface, by which a flow of the gas supplied into the vacuum chamber from the gas inlet of the vacuum chamber is directed toward the gas outlet while avoiding the upward space of the sample surface; setting a supply flow rate of the gas from the gas inlet to zero; and supplying a high-frequency power to a plasma source to generate a plasma in the vacuum chamber, thereby introducing the impurities into the sample or the film of the sample surface.