Patent ID: 7895971

Claim:
A microwave plasma processing apparatus, comprising: a chamber for receiving a processing target; a microwave generator for generating microwaves; a waveguide unit for guiding the microwaves generated in the microwave generator toward the chamber; a planar antenna made of a conductive material and having a plurality of microwave radiation openings through which the microwaves guided by the waveguide unit are irradiated toward the chamber; a microwave transmitting board made of a dielectric material and forming a top wall of the chamber, the microwave transmitting board adapted to transmit the microwaves passed through the microwave radiation openings of the planar antenna; a plate made of a conductive material and covering an outer periphery of the microwave transmitting board; two or more holes provided in the plate, wherein the microwaves are propagated into the holes from the microwave transmitting board, the holes being provided to extend from an end portion of the microwave transmitting board into the plate; a volume adjustment mechanism for adjusting volumes of the two or more holes; a processing gas supply unit for supplying a processing gas into the chamber, wherein plasma of the processing gas is formed within the chamber by the microwaves to perform a plasma processing of the processing target, and wherein, when the microwave transmitting board is divided into individual units to which each of the two or more holes belongs, impedance of the individual units is adjusted to thereby control an electric field distribution of the microwave transmitting board by adjusting the volumes of the holes with the volume adjustment mechanism.