Patent ID: 7373899

Claim:
A plasma processing apparatus comprising: a processing chamber connected to a vacuum exhauster so that its inside pressure can be reduced by said vacuum exhauster; a gas feed unit for supplying gas into said processing chamber; a substrate electrode provided in said processing chamber and on which a sample can be placed; an RF power supply connected through a matching circuit to said substrate electrode, for applying an RF bias voltage having a waveform of a predetermined frequency to said substrate electrode by an RF power which is independently controlled with respect to another RF power applied for plasma generation; plasma generating means for generating plasma within said processing chamber; and a voltage waveform control circuit provided within said matching circuit or between said substrate electrode and said matching circuit to flatten the voltage waveform of said RF bias voltage applied to said substrate electrode by cutting off the bias voltage waveform at at least one voltage level for controlling an energy distribution of ions incident to said sample.