PLASMA PROCESSING METHOD AND APPARATUS

摘要

A method and apparatus for generating and controlling a plasma (130) formed in a capacitively coupled plasma system (100) having a plasma electrode (140) and a bias electrode in the form of a workpiece support member (170), wherein the plasma electrode is unitary and has multiple regions (Ri) defined by a plurality of RF power feed lines (156) and the RF power delivered thereto. The electrode regions may also be defined as electrode segments (420) separated by insulators (426). A set of process parameters A= {n, tau i, phi i, Pi, S; Li} is defined, wherein n is the number of RF feed lines connected to the electrode upper surface at locations Li, tau i is the on-time of the RF power for the i RF feed line, phi i is the phase of the i RF feed line relative to a select one of the other RF feed lines, Pi is the RF power delivered to the electrode through the i RF feed line at location Li, and S is the sequencing of RF power to the electrode through the RF feed lines. One or more of these parameters are adjusted so that operation of the plasma system results in a workpiece (176) being processed with a desired amount or degree of process uniformity.