Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100189921 | PLASMA GENERATING METHOD, PLASMA GENERATING APPARATUS, AND PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - A plasma generating method and apparatus which use plural high-frequency antennas | 07-29-2010 |
20110203922 | THIN-FILM FORMING SPUTTERING SYSTEM - A thin-film forming sputtering system capable of a sputtering process at a high rate. A thin-film forming sputtering system includes: a vacuum container; a target holder located inside the vacuum container; a target holder located inside the vacuum container; a substrate holder opposed to the target holder; a power source for applying a voltage between the target holder and the substrate holder: a magnetron-sputtering magnet provided behind the target holder, for generating a magnetic field having a component parallel to a target; and radio-frequency antennae for generating radio-frequency inductively-coupled plasma within a space in the vicinity of the target where the magnetic field generated by the magnetron sputtering magnet has a strength equal to or higher than a predetermined level. The radio-frequency inductively-coupled plasma generated by the radio-frequency antennae promotes the supply of electrons into the aforementioned magnetic field, so that the sputtering process can be performed at a high rate. | 08-25-2011 |
20120031562 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention provides a plasma processing device capable of inducing a strong radio-frequency electric field within a vacuum container while preventing sputtering of the antenna conductor, an increase in the temperature of the antenna conductor and the formation of particles. A plasma processing device according to the present invention includes a vacuum container, a radio-frequency antenna placed between an inner surface and an outer surface of a wall of the vacuum container, and a dielectric separating member for separating the radio-frequency antenna from an internal space of the vacuum container. As compared to a device using an external antenna, the present device can induce a stronger magnetic field in the vacuum container. The separating member has the effects of preventing the radio-frequency antenna from undergoing sputtering by the plasma produced in the vacuum container, suppressing an increase in the temperature of the radio-frequency antenna, and preventing the formation of particles. | 02-09-2012 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100263797 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention aims at providing a plasma processing apparatus for performing a plasma processing on a planar substrate body to be processed, the apparatus being capable of generating the plasma with good uniformity and efficiently using the plasma, and having a high productivity. That is, the plasma processing apparatus according to the present invention includes: a vacuum chamber; one or plural antenna supporters (plasma generator supporters) projecting into the internal space of the vacuum chamber; radio-frequency antennas (plasma generators) attached to each antenna supporter; and a pair of substrate body holders provided across the antenna supporter in the vacuum chamber, for holding a planar substrate body to be processed. | 10-21-2010 |
20100304046 | PLASMA GENERATOR, PLASMA CONTROL METHOD AND METHOD OF PRODUCING SUBSTRATE - The present invention aims to provide a plasma generator capable of creating a spatially uniform distribution of high-density plasma. This object is achieved by the following construction. Multiple antennas are located on the sidewall of a vacuum chamber, and a RF power source is connected to three or four antennas in parallel via a plate-shaped conductor. The length of the conductor of each antenna is shorter than the quarter wavelength of the induction electromagnetic wave generated within the vacuum chamber. Setting the length of the conductor of the antenna in such a manner prevents the occurrence of a standing wave and thereby maintains the uniformity of the plasma within the vacuum chamber. In addition, the plate-shaped conductor improves the heat-releasing efficiency, which also contributes to the suppression of the impedance. | 12-02-2010 |
20110080094 | RADIO-FREQUENCY ANTENNA UNIT AND PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention aims at providing a radio-frequency antenna unit capable of generating a high-density discharge plasma in a vacuum chamber. The radio-frequency antenna unit according to the present invention includes: a radio-frequency antenna through which a radio-frequency electric current can flow; a protective tube made of an insulator provided around the portion of the radio-frequency antenna that is in the vacuum chamber; and a buffer area provided between the radio-frequency antenna and the protective tube. The “buffer area” refers to an area where an acceleration of electrons is suppressed, and it can be formed, for example, with a vacuum or an insulator. Such a configuration can suppress an occurrence of an electric discharge between the antenna and the protective tube, enabling the generation of a high-density discharge plasma in the vacuum chamber. | 04-07-2011 |
20110115380 | PLASMA GENERATION DEVICE AND PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE - A flange, which forms a portion of a vacuum container, has a rectangular opening surrounded by an insulating frame. A plate-shaped radio-frequency antenna conductor | 05-19-2011 |
20120031563 | PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE - An inductively coupled plasma processing device using a radio-frequency electric discharge, including: a vacuum container; an antenna-placing section provided between an inner surface and an outer surface of a wall of the vacuum container; a radio-frequency antenna placed in the antenna-placing section, the radio-frequency antenna being terminated without completing one turn; and a dielectric separating member separating the antenna-placing section and an internal space of the vacuum container, wherein the radio-frequency antenna has a length equal to or shorter than one quarter of a wavelength of the radio-frequency waves. | 02-09-2012 |
20130043128 | SPUTTERING SYSTEM - The present invention aims at providing a sputtering system capable of efficiently generating high-density plasma near the surface of a sputter target and forming a film at a high rate. It also aims at providing a large-area sputtering system and a plasma processing system having a simple structure and allowing the sputter target to be easily attached/detached, maintained, or operated otherwise. The present invention provides a sputtering system in which an inductively-coupled antenna conductor plate is attached to a portion of a vacuum chamber, wherein: a sputter target plate is attached to the inductively-coupled antenna conductor on its plasma formation space side; one end of the antenna conductor is connected to a radio-frequency power source; and the other end is grounded through a capacitor. A plurality of antenna conductors may be provided to form a large-area sputtering system. | 02-21-2013 |
20130192759 | PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE - A plasma processing device according to the present invention includes a plasma processing chamber, a plasma producing chamber communicating with the plasma processing chamber, a radio-frequency antenna for producing plasma, a plasma control plate for controlling the energy of electrons in the plasma, as well as an operation rod and a moving mechanism for regulating the position of the plasma control plate. In this plasma processing device, the energy distribution of the electrons of the plasma produced in the plasma producing chamber can be controlled by regulating the distance between the radio-frequency antenna 16 and the plasma control plate by simply moving the operation rod in its longitudinal direction by the moving mechanism. Therefore, a plasma process suitable for the kind of gas molecules to be dissociated and/or their dissociation energy can be easily performed. | 08-01-2013 |
20130220548 | PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE - A plasma processing device has: a metallic vacuum chamber; an antenna-placing section in which a radio-frequency antenna is placed inside a through-hole (hollow space) provided in an upper wall of the vacuum chamber; and a dielectric separating plate covering the entire inner surface of the upper wall. In this plasma processing device, the entire inner surface side of the upper wall is covered with the separating plate so that surfaces in different level otherwise formed when a smaller separating plate is used is not formed between the inner surface and the separating plate. Therefore, the generation of particles caused by the formation of adhered materials on the surfaces in different level is prevented. | 08-29-2013 |
20140150975 | PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE - The present invention provides an internal antenna type plasma processing device which is easily maintained and capable of producing stable plasma. The plasma processing device has a plurality of antenna units | 06-05-2014 |
20140210337 | ANTENNA FOR PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE, AND PLASMA PROCESSING DEVICE USING THE SAME - A radio-frequency antenna includes a linear antenna conductor, a dielectric protective pipe provided around the antenna conductor, and a deposit shield provided around the protective pipe, the deposit shield covering at least one portion of the protective pipe and having at least one opening on any line extending along the length of the antenna conductor. Although the thin-film material adheres to the surfaces of the protective pipe and the deposit shield, the deposited substance has at least one discontinuous portion in the longitudinal direction of the antenna conductor. Therefore, in the case where the thin-film material is electrically conductive, the blocking of the radio-frequency induction electric field is prevented. In the case where the thin-film material is not electrically conductive, an attenuation in the intensity of the radio-frequency induction electric field is suppressed. | 07-31-2014 |
20140216928 | THIN-FILM FORMATION SPUTTERING DEVICE - A thin-film formation sputtering device capable of forming a high-quality thin film at high rates is provided. A sputtering device includes a target holder provided in a vacuum container, a substrate holder facing the target holder, a means for introducing a plasma generation gas into the vacuum container, a means for generating an electric field for sputtering in a region including a surface of a target, an antenna placement room provided between inner and outer surfaces of a wall of the vacuum container as well as separated from an inner space of the vacuum container by a dielectric window, and a radio-frequency antenna, which is provided in the antenna placement room, for generating a radio-frequency induction electric field in the region including the surface of the target held by the target holder. | 08-07-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120326702 | ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE RESONATOR AND ITS FABRICATION PROCESS AS WELL AS ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE GENERATOR - The main object of the invention is to provide an electromagnetic wave resonator making use of surface waves: an electromagnetic wave resonator structure capable of being achieved with existing technologies yet without much difficulty and applying voltage to a positive dielectric area, thereby overcoming a variety of problems arising from the fact that only thermal excitation is available. | 12-27-2012 |
20140009841 | ZOOM LENS AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS HAVING THE SAME - A zoom lens consists of, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit having negative refractive power, a second lens unit having positive refractive power, and a third lens unit having negative refractive power. The first lens unit and the second lens unit move during zooming to make a distance between the first lens unit and the second lens unit larger at a telephoto end than at a wide-angle end. The third lens unit consists of, in order from the object side to the image side, a first lens subunit having positive refractive power and a second lens subunit having negative refractive power, and the second lens subunit moves toward the image side during focusing from an infinite-distance object to a near-distance object. | 01-09-2014 |
20140139705 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - The image processing method includes acquiring an input image produced by an image pickup system including at least one imaging optical system and causing light rays from a same point in an object space to respectively enter different image pickup pixels depending on light ray passing areas of a pupil through which the respective light rays pass, performing a shaping process including at least one of an image restoration process to restore a degraded image and a luminance estimation process to estimate a luminance of a saturated area, a reconstruction process to reconstruct a new image different from the input image, and performing a blur addition process to add an image blur component to an addition target image. The method performs the shaping process before the reconstruction process and the blur addition process. | 05-22-2014 |
20140218557 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM, AND IMAGE-PICKUP APPARATUS - A non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing an image processing program configured to enable a computer to execute a shaping step of shaping an input image generated through capturing via an optical system by using a characteristic of the optical system and an image-pickup condition, a blurring step of blurring an image shaped in the shaping step, and a dividing step of dividing the input image into a plurality or layered images according to an object distance. The computer executes the shaping step based upon distance information of an object contained in each layered image. | 08-07-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080298854 | Developing device and image forming apparatus - A developing device includes a developer supporting member abutting against an image supporting member for developing a static latent image on the image supporting member. In a state that a film member is disposed between the image supporting member and the developer supporting member, it is arranged such that the film member is extended with a tensional force N (N) when the image supporting member and the developer supporting member rotate. The tensional force N has a relationship as follows: | 12-04-2008 |
20090185837 | Developing device and image forming apparatus - A developing device includes a developer supporting member having an elastic layer and a surface layer, and a supply member for supplying developer to the developer supporting member. The surface layer is formed of a mixture containing at least an acrylic resin and a polyether type urethane resin. The developer supporting member and the supply member are configured so that the following equations are satisfied: | 07-23-2009 |
20110052272 | DEVELOPER MATERIAL CARRYING BODY, DEVELOPING UNIT, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A developer material carrying body rotates in contact with an image carrying body on which an electrostatic latent image is formed. The developer material carrying body deposits a developer material to the electrostatic latent image. The developer material carrying body includes a surface having a surface potential (Vo) 0.15 seconds after having been charged, and a relaxation time (τ) required for the surface potential changes to change from Vo to Vo/e. The surface potential and relaxation time are related such that 2.0≦Vo≦10 and 0<τ<0.20. | 03-03-2011 |
20110135344 | Developing device and image forming apparatus - A developer bearing body rotates in a first direction. A supply brush roller, out of contact with the body, also rotates in the first direction. A brush contact member has a first contact portion in contact with bristles of the roller above a first horizontal plane passing through a rotational axis of the roller and upstream in the first rotational direction of the roller, of a portion of the roller opposing the body. A thickness adjusting member has a second contact portion in contact with the body below a second horizontal plane passing through a rotational axis of the body and downstream in the first rotational direction of the body, of the portion of the roller opposing the body. A first vertical plane passing through the first contact portion is closer to the axis of the roller than is a second vertical plane passing through the second contact portion. | 06-09-2011 |