Surface processing apparatus

Abstract

This surface processing apparatus has a reactor in which plasma is generated and a substrate whose surface is to be processed by the plasma is arranged, and a magnet plate for creating a point-cusp magnetic field distributed in an inner space of the reactor, in which the plasma is generated. The magnet plate has a plurality of magnets. These magnets are arranged by a honeycomb lattice structure in a circular plane facing in parallel a surface of the substrate. One magnetic pole end face of each of magnets is arranged at a position of each of the lattice points forming hexagonal shapes on the circular plane. The polarities of the magnetic pole end faces of two adjoining magnets are arranged to become opposite alternately. The magnet plate may be provided with a plurality of magnets arranged by a lattice structure forming a square and the magnetic force (coercive force) of some of the magnets arranged at the outermost region is reduced. Thereby, the periodicity of the point-cusp magnetic field in the inside space is maintained as much as possible even at the peripheral edge and the asymmetry of the distribution of the magnetic field at the region where the periodicity is disturbed at the peripheral edge is reduced.

Description

[0001] This is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 10 / 211,367 filed Aug. 5, 2002. The disclosure of the prior application is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a surface processing apparatus, more particularly relates to a surface processing apparatus for processing a substrate surface using plasma. This surface processing apparatus is used for the fabrication of integrated circuits in the semiconductor industry. The surface processing apparatus has a plasma source for supplying ions, electrons, neutral radicals, etc. useful for formation of an insulating film, interconnect metal, gate electrode materials, etc. on a substrate or minutely processing the substrate surface. This plasma source creates plasma inside a reactor. The distribution of this plasma is controlled by a point-cusp magnetic field. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] The configuration of a represen...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a surface processing apparatus maintaining as much as possible the periodicity of a point-cusp magnetic field created in an inside space of a reactor, reducing the asymmetry of the distribution of the magnetic field in a region of disturbance of periodicity at the peripheral edge, maintaining symmetry of the point-cusp magnetic field without making any major changes in the hardware configuration, and enabling uniform surface processing.

Problems solved by technology

According to the configuration of the conventional surface processing apparatus, however, as explained above, the weak magnetic field becomes non-uniform at the space away from the magnet plate 22 and the distribution of the magnetic field is disturbed at the peripheral edge so the density and diffusion direction of the ions and electrons in the plasma are not uniform.

Therefore, the problem arises that the surface processing of the substrate 14 by the plasma becomes non-uniform.

As a result, there was the problem that the results of the surface processing of the substrate region corresponding to that space differed from the results of surface processing of the substrate region corresponding to another space.

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