CN117894662A - Process chamber and semiconductor process equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The application discloses a process chamber and semiconductor process equipment, wherein the process chamber comprises a chamber body, and an upper electrode assembly and a lower electrode assembly which are arranged in the chamber body, wherein a process area is formed between the upper electrode assembly and the lower electrode assembly; the process chamber further comprises: and the magnetic component is arranged above the upper electrode component and is used for confining plasma positioned near the upper electrode component in the process area. The magnetic component of the application forms a magneto-asymmetric effect by the magnetic field generated on the lower surface of the upper electrode component, on one hand, the plasma density near the lower surface of the upper electrode component can be increased, so that the symmetry of CCP discharge between two electrodes is changed, the bombardment energy of plasma near the lower electrode component to a wafer is reduced, and on the other hand, the plasma bombardment on the lower surface of the upper electrode component can be enhanced simultaneously, and the deposited film on the lower surface of the upper electrode component is removed, so that the PM period of a process chamber is prolonged.

Description

Process chamber and semiconductor process equipment

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to a process chamber and semiconductor process equipment.

Background

A conventional process chamber is shown in fig. 1, and includes a lower electrode 11a and an upper electrode 12a forming two electrodes of a capacitor, and a base 13a for driving the lower electrode 11a to rise and fall, wherein a wafer 101a is placed on the lower electrode 11 a. The upper electrode 12a is normally grounded, and an RF power supply is connected to the lower electrode 11a through a matcher (Match) 14 a. During the process, the process gas enters the process chamber, and after the pressure is stabilized, the RF power supply applies power to the lower electrode 11a, so as to excite the process gas to form capacitively coupled plasma (CapacitivelyCoupled Plasma, CCP).

The process chamber generally needs to apply a higher RF power to achieve the required plasma density, and the higher RF power also makes the energy of the plasma bombarding the surface of the wafer 101a higher, so that the plasma energy of the surface of the wafer 101a cannot be controlled, and thus the plasma density and the bombarding energy of the surface of the wafer cannot be controlled respectively, and the wafer which is more sensitive to damage cannot be processed.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a process chamber and semiconductor process equipment, which can solve the problem that the existing process chamber cannot control the density and energy of plasma respectively, so that the application range is narrow.

To solve the above technical problems, in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a process chamber, including a chamber body, and an upper electrode assembly and a lower electrode assembly disposed in the chamber body, wherein a process area is formed between the upper electrode assembly and the lower electrode assembly; the process chamber further comprises:

And the magnetic component is arranged above the upper electrode component and is used for confining plasma positioned near the upper electrode component in the process area.

Optionally, the magnetic assembly includes: at least two annular magnetic members;

the diameters of the at least two annular magnetic pieces are different and are sequentially nested concentrically;

The annular magnetic piece is provided with two magnetic poles, one magnetic pole is positioned at one end close to the upper electrode assembly, and the other magnetic pole is positioned at one end far away from the upper electrode assembly; the polarities of the magnetic poles of any two adjacent annular magnetic pieces, which are close to one end of the upper electrode assembly, are opposite.

Optionally, the annular magnetic member is an annular permanent magnet; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The annular magnetic member is formed by arranging a plurality of columnar permanent magnets along the circumferential direction.

Alternatively, the columnar permanent magnet comprises a plurality of permanent magnet blocks which are arranged in a stacked manner, so that the magnetic flux density of the permanent magnet can be adjusted by changing the number of layers of the columnar permanent magnet blocks.

Optionally, the magnetic assembly further comprises: the shell is arranged above the upper electrode assembly, and the at least two annular magnetic pieces are arranged in the shell;

The shell is provided with a first through hole for cooling medium to flow in and a second through hole for cooling medium to flow out.

Optionally, a fixing structure for installing the annular magnetic member is arranged on the inner side surface of the bottom plate of the shell.

Optionally, the upper electrode assembly includes: the device comprises a uniform flow cavity, a conductive uniform flow piece and a protective layer;

The uniform flow cavity is arranged between the uniform flow piece and the shell and is used for buffering process gas;

the protective layer is arranged on one side of the uniform flow piece far away from the shell and is used for preventing the uniform flow piece from being bombarded by plasma;

The uniform flow piece is used for enabling the process gas in the uniform flow cavity to uniformly flow into the process area and is used for being connected with a first radio frequency power supply;

A gap is arranged between the shell and the uniform flow cavity; the center of the shell is provided with a first avoidance through hole which is vertically communicated, and a heat insulation fixing ring is arranged in the first avoidance through hole and used for allowing the main air inlet pipe to pass through so as to be connected with the uniform flow cavity and preventing the process gas from being cooled by a cooling medium in the shell.

Optionally, a second avoidance through hole penetrating up and down is further formed in the shell, and an insulating sleeve is arranged in the second avoidance through hole and used for enabling a cable of the first radio frequency power supply to pass through and be connected with the uniform flow piece.

Optionally, the upper electrode assembly is configured to connect to a first rf power source, and the process chamber further includes:

And the coil is arranged around the outer side of the process area and is used for being connected with a second radio frequency power supply.

Optionally, the chamber body includes:

A base;

The annular side wall is arranged on the base, a first flange is arranged on the inner side surface of the annular side wall, and the upper electrode assembly is arranged on the first flange; the coil is embedded in the annular sidewall.

Optionally, the annular sidewall includes:

the first flange is arranged on the inner side surface of the first annular piece;

The top surface of the second annular piece is provided with a first annular groove, the coil is arranged in the first annular groove, and the first annular piece is arranged on the top surface of the second annular piece and covers the first annular groove.

Optionally, the top surface of the second ring member is provided with a second annular groove covered by the first ring member, and the second annular groove is used for introducing circulating cooling medium.

Optionally, the annular sidewall further comprises:

the third annular piece is arranged on the base, a third annular groove used for introducing circulating cooling medium is formed in the top surface of the third annular piece, and the second annular piece is arranged on the top surface of the third annular piece and covers the third annular groove.

Optionally, at least one gas collecting cavity, and a gas inlet channel and a gas outlet channel corresponding to the at least one gas collecting cavity one by one are arranged in the first annular part, and the gas inlet channel is used for connecting an auxiliary gas inlet pipe;

and connecting channels corresponding to the air outlet channels one by one are arranged in the second annular piece, one end of each connecting channel is communicated with the corresponding air outlet channel, and the other end of each connecting channel is communicated with the process area.

Optionally, the first ring member includes:

the first ring body is arranged on the top surface of the second ring piece, and the first flange is arranged on the inner side surface of the first ring body;

the second ring body is arranged on the top surface of the first ring body, the gas collecting cavity is arranged inside the second ring body, and the gas outlet channel penetrates through the first ring body from bottom to top and extends into the second ring body to be communicated with the gas collecting cavity.

Optionally, a second flange is arranged on the outer side surface of the annular side wall;

The process chamber further comprises:

The magnetic shielding cover is used for covering the magnetic assembly inside, the top of the magnetic shielding cover is arranged on the annular side wall, and the side wall of the magnetic shielding cover is connected with the bottom surface of the second flange in a buckling way;

And the conductive layer is positioned on one side of the magnetic shielding cover facing the process area and is used for shielding radio frequency radiation in the magnetic shielding cover.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application also provide a semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a process chamber as described in the embodiments above, an

And the first radio frequency power supply is connected with the upper electrode assembly.

As described above, in the process chamber of the application, the magnetic field generated by the magnetic component on the lower surface of the upper electrode component has a binding effect on the plasma near the upper electrode component in the process area to form a magneto-asymmetric effect (MAGNETIC ASYMMETRY EFFECT, MAE), on one hand, the plasma density near the lower surface of the upper electrode component can be increased, so that the symmetry of the Capacitive Coupling Plasma (CCP) between the two electrodes is changed, the bombardment energy of the plasma on a wafer is reduced, and the density of the plasma and the bombardment energy of the wafer surface are respectively controlled. On the other hand, the deposited film on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly can be removed by changing the symmetry of the CCP and enhancing the bombardment energy of the plasma on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly, so that the PM period of the process chamber is prolonged.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the application and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the application. In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required for the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a prior art process chamber;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a process chamber according to a comparative example of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a process chamber according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the principle of operation of a magnetic assembly according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an internal structure of a magnetic assembly according to an embodiment of the present application.

The achievement of the objects, functional features and advantages of the present application will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in conjunction with the embodiments. Specific embodiments of the present application have been shown by way of the above drawings and will be described in more detail below. The drawings and the written description are not intended to limit the scope of the inventive concepts in any way, but rather to illustrate the inventive concepts to those skilled in the art by reference to the specific embodiments.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, the same numbers in different drawings refer to the same or similar elements, unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary examples do not represent all implementations consistent with the application. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with aspects of the application as detailed in the accompanying claims.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, the element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element, and furthermore, elements having the same name in different embodiments of the application may have the same meaning or may have different meanings, the particular meaning of which is to be determined by its interpretation in this particular embodiment or by further combining the context of this particular embodiment.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," and/or "including" specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, categories, and/or groups, but do not preclude the presence, presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, categories, and/or groups. The terms "or", "and/or", "including at least one of", and the like, as used herein, may be construed as inclusive, or mean any one or any combination. For example, "including at least one of: A. b, C "means" any one of the following: a, A is as follows; b, a step of preparing a composite material; c, performing operation; a and B; a and C; b and C; a and B and C ", again as examples," A, B or C "or" A, B and/or C "means" any of the following: a, A is as follows; b, a step of preparing a composite material; c, performing operation; a and B; a and C; b and C; a and B and C). An exception to this definition will occur only when a combination of elements, functions, steps or operations are in some way inherently mutually exclusive.

It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, these information should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope herein. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, depending on the context, unless the context indicates otherwise.

It should be understood that the terms "top," "bottom," "upper," "lower," "vertical," "horizontal," and the like indicate an orientation or positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, and are merely for convenience of description and to simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus in question must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the application.

For convenience of description, in the following embodiments, orthogonal spaces formed in horizontal and vertical directions are taken as examples, and this precondition should not be construed as limiting the present application.

As described above, the conventional process chamber generally needs to apply a higher RF power to achieve the required plasma density, and the higher RF power also makes the energy of the plasma bombarding the wafer surface higher, so that the plasma bombarding energy on the wafer surface cannot be controlled, that is, the plasma density and the wafer surface bombarding energy cannot be controlled respectively, which results in a narrower application range. Based on this, the application provides a process chamber and a semiconductor process device.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a process chamber according to an embodiment of the application, wherein the process chamber may include a chamber body 10, an upper electrode assembly 20, a lower electrode assembly 30 and a magnetic assembly 50.

The upper electrode assembly 20 and the lower electrode assembly 30 are disposed in the chamber body 10, and a process zone is formed between the upper electrode assembly 20 and the lower electrode assembly 30. In addition, the lower electrode assembly 30 may be disposed on the lift base 201 so as to adjust the height of the wafer 101 on the lower electrode assembly 30 during the process. By applying a radio frequency voltage to one of the upper electrode assembly 20 and the lower electrode assembly 30 and the other to ground, a discharge between the upper electrode assembly 20 and the lower electrode assembly 30 through CCP may be caused to excite the process gases of the process zone to form a high bombardment energy plasma.

The magnetic assembly 50 is disposed above the upper electrode assembly 20 for confining the plasma in the process region near the upper electrode assembly 20. Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation principle of a magnetic assembly according to an embodiment of the application. The magnetic assembly 50 generates a magnetic field on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20 to form a magneto-asymmetric effect (MAGNETIC ASYMMETRY EFFECT, MAE), which generates a confining effect on the plasma near the upper electrode assembly 20 in the process area, and increases the plasma density near the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly, thereby changing the symmetry of the Capacitively Coupled Plasma (CCP) between the two electrodes, reducing the bombardment energy of the plasma on the wafer, and realizing separate control on the plasma density and the wafer surface bombardment energy.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a process chamber according to a comparative example of the present application, the process chamber is used as a pre-cleaning process chamber for semiconductor manufacturing, a lower half portion of the process chamber forms an upper electrode 12b, a cover 16b with a dome-shaped dielectric material is formed on the upper half portion, wherein the cover 16b is made of quartz or Al ₂O₃ ceramic, a lower electrode 11b and a base 13b are disposed inside the process chamber, a coil 15b is disposed outside the cover 16b, an rf1 power source is connected to the coil 15b through a matcher 141b, and a high-density low-bombardment energy plasma (an order of magnitude higher than a plasma density generated by discharging the lower electrode 11 bCCP) is generated by ICP (inductively coupled plasma) discharge. The RF2 power supply is connected to the lower electrode 11b through the matcher 142b, and generates plasma with high bombardment energy by CCP discharge.

By controlling the rf energy applied to the coil 15b and the lower electrode 11b, respectively, the density and energy of the plasma can be controlled separately. However, as the number of wafers processed increases, the film adsorbed to the inner surface of the cover 16b gradually thickens, and breaks when the surface tension of the film reaches a limit, producing a large amount of film particles, causing process particles to exceed the standard. The process chamber is therefore kept in preventive maintenance (PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE, PM) for a short period.

The application increases the plasma density near the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20, changes the symmetry of CCP plasma by MAE effect, enhances the plasma bombardment of the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20, and cleans the deposited film on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20, thereby solving the problem that the deposited film on the inner surface of the cover 16b of the pre-cleaning chamber in FIG. 2 gradually thickens along with the increase of the number of processed wafers, and finally breaks to form a large number of particles to cause the short period of the chamber PM.

In one embodiment, please continue to refer to fig. 3-5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an internal structure of a magnetic component according to an embodiment of the present application. The magnetic assembly 50 may include at least two annular magnetic members 52, all of which annular magnetic members 52 have different diameters and are nested concentrically in sequence; the annular magnetic member 52 has two poles, one of which is located near the end of the upper electrode assembly 20 and the other of which is located far from the end of the upper electrode assembly 20, and the poles of any adjacent two annular magnetic members 52 near the end of the upper electrode assembly 20 are disposed opposite to each other. In fig. 4, two annular magnetic members 52 are taken as an example, and for the sake of distinction, the inner ring is an annular magnetic member 52A, and the outer ring is an annular magnetic member 52B. In other embodiments, the ring magnet 52 may be provided with three, four, etc. As some examples, the ring-shaped magnetic member 52 may be a ring-shaped permanent magnet or may be formed by arranging a plurality of columnar permanent magnets 521 in the circumferential direction, and further, the columnar permanent magnets 521 may further include a plurality of permanent magnet pieces stacked, one columnar permanent magnet 521 may be formed by stacking a plurality of permanent magnet pieces, and the magnetic flux density of the columnar permanent magnet 521 may be flexibly adjusted by adjusting the number of permanent magnet pieces constituting the columnar permanent magnet 521.

The present embodiment can adjust the magnetic flux density of the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20 by adjusting the magnetic field size of each annular magnetic member 52, the number of annular magnetic members 52, and the spacing between adjacent annular magnetic members 52, for example, the magnetic flux density 8mm below the upper electrode assembly 463 can be controlled to be adjusted between 0mT and 100mT, so as to control the bombardment intensity of the plasma on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 3-5, the magnetic assembly 50 may further include a housing 51, the housing 51 is disposed above the upper electrode assembly 20, and all of the annular magnetic members 52 are disposed within the housing 51. The case 51 is provided with a first through hole 511 through which the cooling medium flows in, and a second through hole 512 through which the cooling medium flows out. In all embodiments of the present application, the cooling medium may be water, or may be other cooling medium. Preferably, the annular magnetic member 52 is disposed coaxially with the housing 51.

By disposing all the annular magnetic members 52 in the housing 51 and cooling the annular magnetic members 52 by passing a circulating cooling medium, the annular magnetic members 52 can be prevented from demagnetizing at high temperatures (e.g., 100 to 400 ℃).

As an example, the inner side surface of the bottom plate of the housing 51 is provided with a fixing structure for mounting the annular magnetic member 52. For example, when the annular magnetic member 52 is an annular permanent magnet, a corresponding annular groove may be provided on the inner side surface of the bottom plate of the housing 51, and when the annular magnetic member 52 is formed by arranging a plurality of columnar permanent magnets 521, grooves corresponding to the columnar permanent magnets 521 one by one may be provided on the inner side surface of the bottom plate of the housing 51, where the grooves contact the columnar permanent magnets 521, the surfaces of the grooves may have screw holes, and correspondingly, the surfaces of the permanent magnets 521 may have screws for fastening to each other. The annular magnetic member 52 may also be fixed to the bracket by screws, and the bracket is then mounted in the housing 51.

In one embodiment, referring still to fig. 3-5, the upper electrode assembly 20 may include a uniform flow chamber 21, a conductive uniform flow member (shadow head) 22, and a shield layer 23. The flow-homogenizing chamber 21 is disposed between the flow-homogenizing member 22 and the housing 51 for buffering the process gas, and the shielding layer 23 is disposed at a side of the flow-homogenizing member 22 away from the housing 51 for preventing the flow-homogenizing member 22 from being bombarded by plasma. The flow uniformity 22 is used to uniformly flow the process gas in the flow uniformity chamber 21 into the process zone and is used to connect the first RF power source RF1. A gap is provided between the housing 51 and the uniform flow chamber 21, and as an example, the gap between the housing 51 and the uniform flow chamber 21 may be about 3-10 mm, so that the process gas in the uniform flow chamber 21 is prevented from being cooled by the housing 51 due to direct contact between the two. The center of the housing 51 is provided with a first avoidance through hole 513 penetrating up and down, and a heat insulation fixing ring 53 is arranged in the first avoidance through hole 513 for allowing the main air inlet pipe 110 to pass through to be connected with the uniform flow cavity 21 and preventing the process gas from being cooled by the cooling medium in the housing 51.

It should be noted that, the uniform flow member 22 is mainly used for homogenizing gas and connecting the first RF power supply RF1, the uniform flow member 22 may be made of metal material (such as stainless steel or aluminum alloy), a plurality of uniform air holes 221 communicated with the uniform flow cavity 21 are provided inside, the diameter of the uniform air holes 221 is 1-2 mm, plasma is prevented from being formed inside, hard oxygen ceramic may be sprayed on the surface of the uniform air holes 221 to prevent the plasma from bombarding metal pollutants, the protective layer 23 may be made of dielectric ceramic material, for example, the protective layer 23 may be a ceramic layer, the thickness may be 3-5 mm, through holes (not shown in the figure) connected with the uniform air holes 221 in one-to-one correspondence are provided, and the gas is dispersed through the through holes of the protective layer 23 after entering the uniform flow cavity 21. The internal height of the uniform flow chamber 21 is preferably 2mm or less to reduce the probability of plasma generation therein. The outer shell of the flow-homogenizing chamber 21 may be an insulating corrosion-resistant material such as ceramic (e.g., alumina) that is welded to the flow-homogenizing member 22 to enclose the process gas within the flow-homogenizing chamber 21 and to provide electrical insulation.

In this embodiment, when the main intake pipe 110 passes through the first avoiding through hole 513 of the housing 51, the heated gas is prevented from being cooled while passing through the housing 51 by the heat insulating fixing ring 53 having a small contact area to be separated from the housing 51. Therefore, the vertical height of the heat insulating fixing ring 53 should be as much smaller than the height of the housing 51 as possible. The heat-insulating fixing ring 53 may be made of ceramic, so that the heat-insulating effect is better. The thickness (difference between inner and outer radii) of the heat insulating fixing ring 53 may be 5 to 10mm. In addition, in order to ensure that the radio frequency energy is isolated from the main air inlet pipeline, a section of the main air inlet pipeline, which is 3-5 cm close to the shell of the uniform flow cavity 21, can be made of insulating corrosion-resistant materials such as ceramics, and the section can be made into an integrated structure with the shell of the uniform flow cavity 21.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 3 and 5, a second avoidance hole 514 is further formed in the housing 51, and an insulating sleeve 54 is disposed in the second avoidance hole 514, so that the cable 120 of the first RF power source RF1 can be connected to the current homogenizing member 22 through the second avoidance hole 514. The cable 120 includes, but is not limited to, a form of radio frequency transmission line such as copper post, coaxial cable, and the like. The cable 120 of the first RF power source RF1 is connected to the adapter and then passes through the housing 51, and then is connected to the current homogenizing member 22, the RF energy is fed into the process area through the shielding layer 23, and the insulating sleeve 54 can prevent the RF energy from entering the housing 51. In addition, when connecting the flow-equalizing member 22, a first vacuum feedthrough 55 may be provided when the cable 120 passes through the flow-equalizing chamber 21.

In one embodiment, the process chamber may include a chamber body 10, an upper electrode assembly 20, a lower electrode assembly 30, a coil 40, and a magnetic assembly 50, the upper electrode assembly 20 being configured to be coupled to a first RF power source RF1, the coil 40 being disposed around the outside of the process zone for coupling to a second RF power source RF2.

In the process chamber of the present embodiment, a first RF power source RF1 may be applied to the upper electrode assembly 20, so that a high bombardment energy plasma is formed between the upper electrode assembly 20 and the lower electrode assembly 30 by CCP discharge; by loading the second radio frequency power supply RF2 on the coil 40, the coil 40 forms high-density low-bombardment-energy plasma through ICP discharge, so that the density and bombardment energy of the plasma can be independently regulated, and in addition, the plasma bombardment on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20 is enhanced through the magneto-asymmetric effect (MAGNETIC ASYMMETRY EFFECT, MAE) generated by the magnetic assembly 50, so that the problem of film accumulation at the position is avoided. The process chamber of the present embodiment may be loaded with only the first RF power source RF1 when used as a CVD or PEALD process, and may be simultaneously loaded with the first RF power source RF1 and the second RF power source RF2 when used as a pre-cleaning chamber, and avoid accumulation of the thin film on the lower surface of the upper electrode assembly 20 by the MAE effect of the magnetic assembly 50. The application widens the application range of the process chamber, can reduce the types of required equipment, and can further reduce the cost.

The embodiment of the application also provides a specific structural scheme of the chamber body of the process chamber. With continued reference to fig. 3 and 4, the chamber body 10 may include a base 11 and an annular sidewall 12. The annular side wall 12 is arranged on the base 11, a first flange 13 is arranged on the inner side surface of the annular side wall 12, the upper electrode assembly 20 is arranged on the first flange 13, the coil 40 is embedded in the annular side wall 12, one end of the coil 40 can be connected with the second radio frequency power supply RF2 through a matcher, and the other end of the coil 40 can be grounded through a copper post 56.

Specifically, as an example of the coil 40 being embedded within the annular sidewall 12, with continued reference to fig. 3, the annular sidewall 12 may include a first annular member 121 and a second annular member 122. The first flange 13 is provided on the inner side surface of the first ring 121; the top surface of the second ring member 122 is provided with a first annular groove 1221, the coil 40 is disposed in the first annular groove 1221, the first ring member 121 is disposed on the top surface of the second ring member 122, and the first annular groove 1221 is capped.

The present embodiment can reduce the processing cost of the annular sidewall 12 by providing two members (the first annular member 121 and the second annular member 122) to form the first annular groove 1221 to house the coil 40.

In one embodiment, the top surface of the second ring member 122 is provided with a second annular groove 1222 covered by the first ring member 121, the second annular groove 1222 for passing a circulating cooling medium. Since the lower electrode assembly 30 typically heats wafer to high temperatures (up to 100-400 ℃) during CVD and PEALD processes, thereby heating the entire chamber, the second ring 122 may be cooled by circulating cooling medium.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 3, the annular sidewall 12 may further include a third annular member 123, where the third annular member 123 is disposed on the base 11, a third annular groove 1231 for introducing a circulating cooling medium is disposed on a top surface of the third annular member 123, and the second annular member 122 is disposed on a top surface of the third annular member 123 and covers the third annular groove 1231.

It should be noted that, as some alternatives, the second ring member 122 may be made high enough, and the second ring member 122 is directly seated on the base 11 without the third ring member 123. However, the cooling effect is not good enough, and in addition, there are other structures of the second ring member 122, which are more complex than the third ring member 123, and thus the whole processing cost is higher. In this embodiment, by providing the third ring member 123, the manufacturing cost of providing only the second ring member 122 can be reduced, and at the same time, the third annular groove 1231 is provided on the top surface of the third ring member 123 for circulating the cooling medium, so that the cooling effect of the annular side wall 12 can be improved.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 3, at least one gas collecting cavity 1211 is disposed in the first annular member 121, and a gas inlet channel 1212 and a gas outlet channel 1213 corresponding to the at least one gas collecting cavity 1211, where the gas inlet channel 1212 is used to connect with the auxiliary gas inlet pipe 130; the second annular member 122 is provided with connecting channels 1223 corresponding to the gas outlet channels 1213 one by one, one end of each connecting channel 1223 is communicated with the corresponding gas outlet channel 1213, and the other end is communicated with the process area so as to introduce auxiliary gas into the process chamber.

In this embodiment, by providing the plurality of gas collecting chambers 1211 to form a plurality of auxiliary gas inlet pipes, the auxiliary gas inlet pipes may be uniformly distributed around the annular sidewall 12, for example, the auxiliary gas inlet pipes may be provided in 2, 3, 4 or more, etc. When the auxiliary air heating device is applied, only one or more auxiliary air inlet pipelines can be used for introducing auxiliary air, and the auxiliary air can be heated before being introduced. The plurality of air collecting cavities 1211 may be communicated with each other in the first annular member 121 through an air path (not shown in the figure), and the auxiliary air is introduced only through one auxiliary air inlet pipe 130, and is spread from one air collecting cavity communicated with the air inlet pipe 130 to all other air collecting cavities. This embodiment is particularly useful where more than two reactant gases are required for the process and where it is undesirable for multiple reactant gases to be mixed prior to entering the process zone.

In one embodiment, with continued reference to fig. 3, the first ring 121 can include a first ring 1214 and a second ring 1215. The first ring 1214 is disposed on the top surface of the second ring 122, the first flange 13 is disposed on the inner side surface of the first ring 1214, the second ring 1215 is disposed on the top surface of the first ring 1214, the gas collecting chamber 1211 is disposed inside the second ring 1215, and the gas outlet channel 1213 penetrates the first ring 1214 from bottom to top and extends into the second ring 1215 to communicate with the gas collecting chamber 1211.

Since the structure of the first ring member 121 is relatively complex, the present embodiment is configured by splitting the first ring member 121 into two structures: the first flange 13 is disposed on the first ring 1214 and the second flange 1215, and the gas collection chamber 1211 is disposed on the second ring 1215, so that the processing difficulty and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

In one embodiment, with continued reference to FIG. 3, the outer side of the annular sidewall 12 is provided with a second flange 14. The process chamber may also include a magnetic shield 70, the magnetic shield 70 being configured to house the magnetic assembly 50 therein, and to confine the magnetic field within the magnetic shield 70, and to prevent the diffusion of the magnetic field within the process chamber into the surrounding environment from affecting the surrounding process chamber or electronic components. The magnetic shield 70 is preferably made of a material having high magnetic permeability, such as an alloy material containing elements such as nickel, iron, copper, chromium, molybdenum, etc., for example, nickel-molybdenum alloy, nickel-iron alloy. The top of the magnetic shield 70 is disposed on the annular sidewall 12, specifically can be supported on the first annular member 121, and further specifically can be supported on the second ring body 1215. The side walls of the shield 70 are snap-fit to the bottom surface of the second flange 14. Further, an electrically conductive layer may be provided on the process field facing side of the magnetic shield 70, for example, a layer of a well-conducting metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, not shown) may be provided on the process field facing side of the magnetic shield 70 for shielding radio frequency radiation within the magnetic shield. In the present embodiment, the conductive layer may be located only on the inner surface of the side of the magnetic shield 70 opposite to the wafer.

In this embodiment, the two members (the first ring member 121 and the second ring member 122) or the three members (the first ring member 1214, the second ring member 1215 and the second ring member 122) can be tightly connected by the fastening connection of the magnetic shield 70, particularly when the ring-shaped side wall 12 includes the first ring member 121 and the second ring member 122, and further the first ring member 121 includes the first ring member 1214 and the second ring member 1215, to avoid leakage of the process gas.

As an example, in the above embodiment, a through hole may be formed on the magnetic shield 70 (including a metal layer attached below the magnetic shield 70 and having good electrical conductivity, which will not be described in detail below), and a second vacuum feedthrough 57 is disposed at the through hole, where the cable 120 passes through the through hole of the magnetic shield 70 through the second vacuum feedthrough 57, so as to avoid a sparking phenomenon between the cable 120 and the magnetic shield 70.

As some alternative embodiments, the second ring 1215 may be made of metal, the first ring 1214 may be made of ceramic, the second ring 122 may be made of ceramic, the third ring 123 may be made of ceramic, and the base 11 may be made of metal. The ceramic material may be, for example, alumina, and the metal material may be, for example, aluminum or stainless steel. The ceramic material forms a process area, so that metal pollution is avoided. The magnetic shield 70 and the second ring 1215 are connected to the base 11 via conductive structures, and grounded.

The present application also provides a semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a process chamber as described in the various embodiments above, and a first RF power source RF1, the first RF power source RF1 being coupled to the upper electrode assembly 20 to generate a CCP discharge. In other embodiments, the semiconductor processing apparatus may further include a coil 40 and a second RF power source RF2, the second RF power source RF2 being coupled to the coil 40 to generate ICP discharge, the semiconductor processing apparatus being used as a film forming apparatus for CVD or PEALD, or as a pre-cleaning apparatus for wafers.

The frequencies of the first radio frequency power supply RF1 and the second radio frequency power supply RF2 may be common frequencies of 2MHz, 13.56MHz, 27MHz, 40MHz, etc.

Regarding the working principle and process of the semiconductor processing apparatus of this embodiment, reference is made to the description of the process chamber in the foregoing embodiment of the present invention, and no further description is given here.

The foregoing has outlined a detailed description of a process chamber and semiconductor processing apparatus in accordance with the present application, and the detailed description of the principles and embodiments of the application have been provided herein. In the present application, the descriptions of the embodiments are focused on, and the details or descriptions of the other embodiments may be referred to for the parts not described in detail or in the description of one embodiment.

The foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present application, and therefore, the technical features of the technical solution of the present application may be combined arbitrarily, and for brevity, all of the possible combinations of the technical features in the foregoing embodiment may not be described, and all of the equivalent structures or equivalent processes using the descriptions of the present application and the contents of the drawings may be applied directly or indirectly to other related technical fields, so long as the combinations of the technical features are not contradictory, and all of them are included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims (17)

1. A process chamber, comprising a chamber body, and an upper electrode assembly and a lower electrode assembly disposed within the chamber body, wherein a process zone is formed between the upper electrode assembly and the lower electrode assembly; the process chamber further comprises:

And the magnetic component is arranged above the upper electrode component and is used for confining plasma positioned near the upper electrode component in the process area.

2. The process chamber of claim 1, wherein the magnetic assembly comprises: at least two annular magnetic members;

the diameters of the at least two annular magnetic pieces are different and are sequentially nested concentrically;

The annular magnetic piece is provided with two magnetic poles, one magnetic pole is positioned at one end close to the upper electrode assembly, and the other magnetic pole is positioned at one end far away from the upper electrode assembly; the polarities of the magnetic poles of any two adjacent annular magnetic pieces, which are close to one end of the upper electrode assembly, are opposite.

3. The process chamber of claim 2, wherein the annular magnetic member is an annular permanent magnet; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The annular magnetic member is formed by arranging a plurality of columnar permanent magnets along the circumferential direction.

4. A process chamber according to claim 3, wherein the columnar permanent magnet comprises a plurality of permanent magnet pieces arranged in a stack.

5. The process chamber of claim 2, wherein the magnetic assembly further comprises: the shell is arranged above the upper electrode assembly, and the at least two annular magnetic pieces are arranged in the shell;

The shell is provided with a first through hole for cooling medium to flow in and a second through hole for cooling medium to flow out.

6. The process chamber of claim 5, wherein an inner side of the bottom plate of the housing is provided with a securing structure for mounting the annular magnetic member.

7. The process chamber of claim 5, wherein the upper electrode assembly comprises: the device comprises a uniform flow cavity, a conductive uniform flow piece and a protective layer;

The uniform flow cavity is arranged between the uniform flow piece and the shell and is used for buffering process gas;

the protective layer is arranged on one side of the uniform flow piece far away from the shell and is used for preventing the uniform flow piece from being bombarded by plasma;

The uniform flow piece is used for enabling the process gas in the uniform flow cavity to uniformly flow into the process area and is used for being connected with a first radio frequency power supply;

a gap is arranged between the shell and the uniform flow cavity; the center of the shell is provided with a first avoidance through hole which is vertically communicated, and a heat insulation fixing ring is arranged in the first avoidance through hole and used for allowing a main air inlet pipe to pass through so as to be connected with the uniform flow cavity and preventing the process gas from being cooled by the cooling medium in the shell.

8. The process chamber of claim 7, wherein the housing is further provided with a second through-hole that extends up and down, and an insulating sleeve is disposed in the second through-hole for the cable of the first rf power source to pass through to connect with the uniform current member.

9. The process chamber of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the upper electrode assembly is configured to be connected to a first rf power source, the process chamber further comprising:

And the coil is arranged around the outer side of the process area and is used for being connected with a second radio frequency power supply.

10. The process chamber of claim 9, wherein the chamber body comprises:

A base;

The annular side wall is arranged on the base, a first flange is arranged on the inner side surface of the annular side wall, and the upper electrode assembly is arranged on the first flange; the coil is embedded in the annular sidewall.

11. The process chamber of claim 10, wherein the annular sidewall comprises:

the first flange is arranged on the inner side surface of the first annular piece;

The top surface of the second annular piece is provided with a first annular groove, the coil is arranged in the first annular groove, and the first annular piece is arranged on the top surface of the second annular piece and covers the first annular groove.

12. The process chamber of claim 11, wherein a top surface of the second ring member is provided with a second annular groove capped by the first ring member, the second annular groove for the passage of a circulating cooling medium.

13. The process chamber of claim 11, wherein the annular sidewall further comprises:

the third annular piece is arranged on the base, a third annular groove used for introducing circulating cooling medium is formed in the top surface of the third annular piece, and the second annular piece is arranged on the top surface of the third annular piece and covers the third annular groove.

14. The process chamber of claim 11, wherein at least one gas collection chamber, and a gas inlet channel and a gas outlet channel in one-to-one correspondence with the at least one gas collection chamber are disposed in the first annular member, the gas inlet channel being configured to connect with a secondary gas inlet pipe;

and connecting channels corresponding to the air outlet channels one by one are arranged in the second annular piece, one end of each connecting channel is communicated with the corresponding air outlet channel, and the other end of each connecting channel is communicated with the process area.

15. The process chamber of claim 14, wherein the first ring comprises:

the first ring body is arranged on the top surface of the second ring piece, and the first flange is arranged on the inner side surface of the first ring body;

the second ring body is arranged on the top surface of the first ring body, the gas collecting cavity is arranged inside the second ring body, and the gas outlet channel penetrates through the first ring body from bottom to top and extends into the second ring body to be communicated with the gas collecting cavity.

16. The process chamber of claim 10, wherein an outer side of the annular sidewall is provided with a second flange;

The process chamber further comprises:

The magnetic shielding cover is used for covering the magnetic assembly inside, the top of the magnetic shielding cover is arranged on the annular side wall, and the side wall of the magnetic shielding cover is connected with the bottom surface of the second flange in a buckling way;

And the conductive layer is positioned on one side of the magnetic shielding cover facing the process area and is used for shielding radio frequency radiation in the magnetic shielding cover.

17. A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising the process chamber of any one of claims 1-16, and

And the first radio frequency power supply is connected with the upper electrode assembly.