Active shield for generating a plasma for sputtering

摘要

The deposition system (100) in a semiconductor fabrication system provides a slotted grounded darkspace shield (130), which protects the edge portion of the target (110). It has been found that an axial slot (130) in the grounded darkspace shield can prevent eddy currents from flowing in the darkspace shield and thereby prevent RF power losses due to eddy currents that would otherwise flow in an unslotted darkspace shield due to RF power applied to an RF coil-shield (104). By preventing the RF power losses, the RF coupling efficiency of RF power applied to the RF coil-shield can also be improved.