Patent ID: 8894806

Claim:
A plasma processing apparatus comprising: a vacuum evacuable processing chamber; a lower electrode for mounting a target substrate in the processing chamber, the lower electrode including a peripheral portion which extends radially outwardly beyond an outer periphery of the substrate; a focus ring mounted on the lower electrode to cover at least a portion of the peripheral portion of the lower electrode, and wherein the focus ring is coupled to an electrically grounded conductive member embedded within a dielectric member located outwardly in a radial direction from the lower electrode to surround the lower electrode; an upper electrode disposed to face the lower electrode in parallel in the processing chamber; a processing gas supply unit for supplying a processing gas to a processing space formed between the upper electrode and the lower electrode to perform a plasma process on the substrate; a radio frequency (RF) power supply for outputting an RF power of a frequency appropriate for gas RF discharge; a plasma generating RF power supply section for supplying the RF power outputted from the RF power supply to a first load configured to generate a plasma of the processing gas by RF discharge in the processing space in an impedance matching state; a focus ring heating RF power supply section for supplying the RF power outputted from the RF power supply to a second load configured to heat the focus ring to a desired temperature in an impedance matching state, the second load including an RF transmission path from the lower electrode to the electrically grounded conductive member through the focus ring and the dielectric member; and an impedance controlling unit configured to variably control an impedance in the RF transmission path of the second load with respect to the RF power supply, wherein the impedance controlling unit is positioned along the RF transmission path and between the grounded conductive member and ground.