Patent ID: 7164236

Claim:
A method of determining a set of optimum plasma process parameters A*={n*, τ i *, Φ i *, P i *, S*; L i *} for plasma processing, with a high degree of uniformity, a workpiece in a plasma reactor chamber having an electrode with an upper surface as part of a plasma reactor system, wherein n is the number of RF feed lines connected to the electrode upper surface at locations L i , τ i is the on-time of the RF power for the i th RF feed line, Φ i is the phase of the i th RF feed line relative to a select one of the other RF feed lines, P i is the RF power delivered to the electrode to location L i through the i th RF feed line, and S is the sequencing of RF power to the electrode through the RF feed lines, the method comprising the steps of: a) setting initial values for process parameters n, τ i , Φ i , P i , and S; and b) processing one or more workpieces while varying one or more of said process parameters to determine the optimized set of process parameters A*={n*, τ i *, Φ i *, P i *, S*} that achieve a process non-uniformity less than a predetermined standard, including use of at least one of a linear or a non-linear processing model as a basis for varying at least one of the process parameters.