Patent ID: 8278211

Claim:
A thin film forming method in which a process chamber including a first electrode for supporting a substrate; a second electrode disposed so as to face the substrate for supporting a target; and a plurality of magnets arranged on a surface facing a surface that supports the target of the second electrode wherein the magnets are arranged in positions corresponding to the respective corners of a plurality of rectangles linked in a checkered pattern and the polarities of the magnets neighboring in a direction of the side of the respective rectangles are opposite to each other, is used to deposit a target material onto a substrate having a concave step, wherein the magnets form a line of magnetic flux closed so as to form a loop in space near the surface that supports the target of the second electrode to form a point-cusp field, and different high frequency powers are applied to the first and second electrodes, respectively, from high frequency power sources to generate plasma under the second electrode, the method comprising: a first step of depositing a thin film on a bottom of the step; and a second step of forming a film on an inner sidewall of the step by re-sputtering the thin film deposited on the bottom of the step, wherein the first step selects and sets a pressure in the process chamber in a range from 2 Pa to 27 Pa, sets a ratio of the power supplied to the first electrode to the power supplied to the second electrode to 0.5 or less, sets the frequency of the high frequency power source supplied to the second electrode to a range from 10 MHz to 300 MHz, and thereby generates high-density plasma under the second electrode to deposit a thin film on the bottom of the step, and the second step sets the power supplied to the second electrode lower than that of the first step selects and sets a pressure in the process chamber in a range from 0.2 Pa to 2 Pa, sets a ratio of the power supplied to the first electrode to the power supplied to the second electrode to 1 or more, and thereby generates low-density plasma under the second electrode and re-sputters the thin film deposited on the bottom of the step to form a film on the inner sidewall of the step.