Patent ID: 7875555

Claim:
A method for treating a substrate with plasma over a wide pressure range, comprising: disposing said substrate in a process chamber of a plasma processing system configured to treat said substrate with plasma; exposing said substrate to a low pressure plasma in said process chamber, wherein said exposing said substrate to said low pressure plasma comprises: creating a first plasma using a first electromagnetic field in a first plasma region of said plasma processing system at a pressure greater than about 10 mtorr; setting a pressure in a second plasma region of said process chamber less than about 10 mtorr; transporting electrons from said first plasma in said first plasma region to said second plasma region; heating said electrons using a second electromagnetic field in said second plasma region to form said low pressure plasma; and exposing said substrate to said low pressure plasma in said second plasma region; and exposing said substrate to a high pressure plasma in said plasma processing system, wherein said exposing said substrate to said high pressure plasma comprises: setting a pressure in said second plasma region of said process chamber greater than about 10 mtorr; forming said high pressure plasma in said second plasma region; and exposing said substrate to said high pressure plasma in said second plasma region.