Patent ID: 7683289
Filing Date: 2010-03-23
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
1. A plasma processing system for semiconductor wafer processing, comprising: a processing chamber defined by walls that enclose a processing volume, wherein a ground circuit is defined to extend from the walls of processing chamber to a reference ground potential; a radiofrequency (RF) power source; a matching network connected to the RF power source; a transmit electrode disposed within the processing chamber, the transmit electrode connected to the matching network, wherein the transmit electrode is defined to transmit RF power to a plasma to be generated within the processing volume; a number of return electrodes disposed within the processing chamber and connected to the reference ground potential; a plurality of RF power transmission paths extending from the RF power source through the matching network through the transmit electrode through the plasma to the number of return electrodes; and a plurality of tuning elements respectively disposed within the plurality of RF power transmission paths, each of the plurality of tuning elements defined to adjust an amount of RF power to be transmitted through an RF power transmission path within which the tuning element is disposed, a plasma density within a vicinity of a particular RF power transmission path being directly proportional to the amount of RF power transmitted through the particular RF power transmission path during operation of the plasma processing system, wherein the plurality of tuning elements includes an adjustable capacitive element defined between the transmit electrode and the ground circuit that extends from the walls of the processing chamber to the reference ground potential, and wherein the plurality of tuning elements includes an adjustable inductive element defined within the ground circuit that extends from the walls of the processing chamber to the reference ground potential, and wherein the plurality of tuning elements includes a number of adjustable inductive elements defined within an RF power transmission path segment extending from the matching network to the transmit electrode, and wherein the plurality of tuning elements includes a number of adjustable capacitive elements defined between the RE power transmission path segment extending from the matching network to the transmit electrode and the reference ground potential.