Patent ID: 7658815

Claim:
In a plasma processing apparatus comprising: a processing vessel, the pressure of which can be lowered; a stage for mounting a sample within said processing vessel; an antenna electrode having a substantially circular shape, arranged on a plane of the processing vessel, which is located opposite to the stage, and positioned parallel to the stage; gas conducting means for supplying processing gas into the processing vessel; an external coil which forms a magnetic field within said processing vessel and produces plasma within said processing vessel due to a mutual reaction occurring between the formed magnetic field and an electromagnetic wave radiated from the antenna electrode; and an emission monitor for monitoring emission intensity of plasma present in at least 3 different points along a radial direction of said antenna electrode, wherein: said gas conducting means is comprised of a gas distributing plate and a shower plate, which are arranged in such a manner that both said gas distributing plate and said shower plate cover said antenna electrode, and said emission monitor is comprised of an optical fiber which is arranged at a position where said optical fiber faces a narrow hole formed in the shower plate of said gas distributing plate, a plasma processing method for plasma-processing said sample by employing said plasma, comprising the steps of: monitoring, by said emission monitor, positional distribution of the emission intensity of plasma in the at least 3 different points along the radial direction of said antenna electrode; and adjusting, in accordance with the monitored positional distribution of the emission intensity of plasma along the radial direction of said antenna electrode, an energizing current supplied to said external coil in a manner that the magnetic field is strengthened when an emission intensity at a center portion of the plasma is higher than an emission intensity at an outer peripheral portion of the plasma, and the magnetic field is weakened when an emission intensity at the outer peripheral portion of the plasma is higher than an emission intensity at the center portion of the plasma, to thereby uniform the positional distribution of the emission intensity of plasma along the radial direction.