Patent ID: 6872289

Claim:
A thin film fabrication apparatus, comprising: a processing chamber whose interior is pumped out by a vacuum pump system, a substrate holder which holds a substrate in a set position in said processing chamber, a gas delivery system which introduces a set process gas into said processing chamber, a plasma generation means for continuously producing a plasma with a constant power in said processing chamber, and in which a thin film is produced on the surface of a substrate held by said substrate holder, a cathode that includes a target to which the constant power is applied, a biasing device which causes ions in a plasma to be incident on said substrate surface by biasing said substrate surface relative to the plasma space potential by imparting a set potential to said substrate surface, and said biasing device imposes a voltage in pulse form on said substrate, the frequency of this pulse being less than the oscillation frequency of said ions in said plasma, and a control section which controls the pulse period, pulse width and pulse height; wherein said control section is configured so as to control the pulse period, pulse width and pulse height in a manner such that, in one pulse period, the incidence energy of said ions temporarily crosses a sputtering threshold value which is the value of the lowest-limit necessary energy for effecting sputtering of a thin film which is produced on said substrate surface.