Patent ID: 8728918

Claim:
A method for fabricating a semiconductor layer within a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) apparatus comprising: positioning one or more substrates in the PECVD apparatus, the PECVD apparatus comprising: a plurality of walls defining a processing region; a substrate support; a shadow frame disposed over the substrate support; a gas distribution showerhead disposed over the substrate support and in fluid communication with the processing region; a gas source in fluid communication with the gas distribution showerhead and the processing region; a radio frequency power source coupled to the gas distribution showerhead; and one or more VHF grounding straps electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of walls, wherein the one or more VHF grounding straps provide a low-impedance current path between the at least one of the plurality of walls and at least one of a shadow frame or the substrate support, and the one or more VHF grounding straps are electrically coupled to the shadow frame; delivering a semiconductor precursor gas from the gas source through the gas distribution showerhead to the processing region; delivering a dopant precursor gas from the gas source through the gas distribution showerhead to the processing region; and delivering a very high frequency (VHF) power to the gas distribution showerhead to generate a plasma from the semiconductor precursor gas and dopant precursor gas to form a first layer on the one or more substrates.