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| 20090211706 | ETCHING ENDPOINT DETERMINATION METHOD - A microscopic change in a luminous intensity occurring near an etching endpoint is accurately detected, whereby the endpoint of etching is quickly determined. An etching endpoint determination method for determining an endpoint of etching processing in a plasma etching apparatus that introduces a processing gas into a vacuum chamber, produces plasma by feeding high-frequency energy to a introduced processing gas, and uses the produced plasma to perform plasma processing on a workpiece stored in the chamber includes: a step of sampling light of a pre-set wavelength from light emitted by the plasma produced in the vacuum chamber, acquiring as time-sequential data the luminous intensity of the sampled light of the specific wavelength, and computing a regression line on the basis of the acquired time-sequential data; and a step of computing distances in a time-base direction between the regression line and the time-sequential data which are obtained at the first step. An endpoint of etching processing is determined based in the distances in the time-base direction obtained at the second step. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20100132888 | Plasma Processing Apparatus - A plasma processing apparatus includes a plasma processing main frame, and an apparatus controller controlling the plasma processing main frame. The plasma processing main frame has a vacuum process chamber, an exhaust device, a mass flow controller, a stage electrode receiving a workpiece, a high-frequency electrical source to, and a transfer device placing the workpiece on the stage electrode and carrying out the processed workpiece. The apparatus controller controls the plasma processing main frame in accordance with a predetermined procedure and is provided with a diagnosis device which acquires a plurality of recipes for processing workpieces carried in the chamber and apparatus parameters of the plasma processing apparatus when a specific recipe of the above recipes is executed, whereby the condition of the plasma processing main frame is diagnosed based on the acquired apparatus parameters. | 06-03-2010 |
| 20100258246 | Plasma Processing System - A plasma processing system includes a processing chamber provided with a plasma generation unit for applying radio-frequency power to supplied processing gas to generate plasma and a stage for holding workpieces, and a control computer for generating plasma in accordance with preset processing conditions to sequentially apply plasma processing to the workpieces and also for sequentially collecting system parameter values each of which represents a state of the plasma processing. The computer is provided with a record unit for storing, in every predetermined period, a frequency that each of the collected system parameter values deviates from a preset reference value, an occurrence rate calculation unit for calculating, based on the frequency, an occurrence rate that the each of the system parameter values deviates from the reference value, and a comparison unit for comparing the occurrence rate with a preset reference value to diagnose a state of the system. | 10-14-2010 |
| 20100297783 | Plasma Processing Method - A method for performing a plasma process using a plasma processing apparatus which includes a vacuum process chamber, an exhaust device, a mass flow controller supplying a process gas, a stage electrode which receives and holds a workpiece by adsorption, a transfer device, and a high-frequency electrical source. The method includes a first step of performing the plasma process for the workpiece in the vacuum process chamber by a corresponding recipe of predetermined recipes, a second step of acquiring apparatus parameters showing the condition of the plasma processing apparatus when a specific recipe of the predetermined recipes is executed to diagnose whether the condition of the plasma processing apparatus is good or not based on the acquired apparatus parameters. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20110083808 | PLASMA PROCESSING APPARATUS - A plasma processing apparatus including: a monitor device which monitors a process quantity generated at plasma processing; a monitor value estimation unit which has monitor quantity variation models for storing change of a monitor value of the process quantity in accordance with the number of processed specimens and which estimates a monitor value for a process of a next specimen by referring to the monitor quantity variation models; and a control quantity calculation unit which stores a relation between a control quantity for controlling the process quantity of the vacuum processing device and a monitor value and which calculates the control quantity based on a deviation of the estimated monitor value from a target value to thereby control the process quantity for the process of the next specimen. Thus, a process model indicating variation of the state of a process processing apparatus can be added to a control loop in such run-to-run control that process conditions are changed according to each wafer process, so that stable processed results can be obtained even when variation occurs in processes. | 04-14-2011 |
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| 20090120580 | Disturbance-Free, Recipe-Controlled Plasma Processing System And Method - A plasma processing apparatus includes a vacuum processing apparatus for performing a multi-step processing operation for a sample, a sensor for monitoring process parameters during at least a first step of the processing operation, a signal compression unit for compressing a signal from the sensor to generate an apparatus state signal, a worked result estimate model unit which estimates a processed result on the basis of the apparatus state signal and a set processed-result estimation equation, an optimum recipe calculation model unit which calculates corrections to processing conditions so that the processed result becomes a target value, a usable recipe selecting unit which judges validity of an optimum recipe. At a next step of the processing operation, sample processing is performed under optimum conditions on the basis of the usable recipe selected by the selected usable recipe. | 05-14-2009 |
| 20090253222 | Etching process state judgment method and system therefor - An etching process state judgment method comprising: a spectral data obtaining step, in which an optical emission spectrum distribution is obtained by monitoring optical emission during an etching process of a plurality of wafers; a peak detection step, in which peaks are detected from the optical emission spectrum distribution at a specific time point during the etching process, to obtain peak characteristics; a common peak identifying step, in which peaks common to the wafers are identified among the peaks detected in the peak detection step; and a state detection step, in which the characteristics are compared regarding the common peaks, to detect a state of each wafer in the etching process. | 10-08-2009 |
| 20100068009 | VACUUM PROCESSING APPARATUS - A vacuum processing apparatus includes a plurality of vacuum containers; a vacuumized transfer unit connected with the vacuum containers and having a transfer chamber; a plurality of lock chambers connected to the vacuumized transfer unit; a vacuumized transferring section arranged in the transfer chamber to transfer the sample between each of the lock chambers and each of the processing chambers inside the plurality of vacuum containers; an atmospheric transfer container having a space through which the sample is transferred under the atmospheric pressure; an atmospheric transfer unit arranged in the atmospheric transfer container and adapted to transfer the sample from a cassette; and a controller operative on the basis of schedule information of a plurality of operations to adjust the operations, the information including times of stagnation of the plurality of samples and set therefor. | 03-18-2010 |
