JPS61133386A - Plasma etching device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent surely the contamination of a material to be treated by gaseous chlorine by disposing freely removably an alumina coated member along the inside of a vacuum vessel of a plasma etching device. CONSTITUTION:Parallel flat plate electrodes 4, 5 are disposed in the vacuum vessel 1 and an etching gas is introduced through an introducing pipe 9 into the vessel; at the same time high-frequency electric power is impressed to the lower electrode 4 from a high-frequency power source 8 to generate plasma, by which the etching of the material 3 to be treated is executed. The alumina coated member 11 is freely removably disposed along the inside of the vessel 1 in such etching device. The contamination of the material 3 by iron, nickel, etc., is thus surely prevented even if a stainless steel material is used for the vessel 1 and the gaseous chlorine is used for the etching gas. The maintenance such as cleaning is made easy as the material 11 is freely removable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a plasma etching apparatus, and more particularly to a plasma etching apparatus which processes a large workpiece and uses a chlorine-based gas as an etching gas.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventionally, RIE equipment M, which is a type of plasma etching equipment,
In a (reactive ion etching apparatus), a pair of parallel plate electrodes are disposed in a vacuum container, the object to be processed is fixed to one of the electrodes, an etching gas is introduced into the vacuum container, Furthermore, the object to be processed is etched by applying high frequency power to the electrodes to generate plasma.

However, if the vacuum container is made of stainless steel,
When a chlorine-based gas is used as the etching gas, there is a problem in that iron, nickel, chromium, etc. are released from the vacuum container, contaminating the object to be processed and causing significant deterioration.

For this reason, alumina or aluminum whose surface has been oxidized has been conventionally used as a material for vacuum containers. However, the above-mentioned alumina and the like are very expensive and lack strength, so they are not suitable.

Further, etching products generated during etching tend to adhere to the inside of the vacuum container, and the inside of the vacuum container must be constantly cleaned to prevent adverse effects from the etching products. However, in the case of any of the above-mentioned vacuum containers, cleaning was difficult and maintenance performance was low.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a plasma etching apparatus that is easy to maintain and is inexpensive.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, a plasma etching apparatus according to the present invention fixes a workpiece to one of parallel plate electrodes disposed in a vacuum container, introduces an etching gas into the vacuum container, and etches the electrode. In a plasma etching apparatus that etches the object to be processed by applying high frequency power to generate plasma, an alumina covering member is removably disposed along the inside of the vacuum container. This is a characteristic feature.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The drawing shows an embodiment of the RIE apparatus according to the present invention, in which a removable n2 is hermetically fixed to the upper surface of a vacuum container 1 made of stainless steel, and a is a lower electrode 4 on which the object to be processed 3 is placed;
A grounded upper electrode 5 is disposed on the inner upper surface of the vacuum container 1, and a lid 2 of the vacuum container 1 is disposed opposite to the lower electrode 4.
It is screwed into place. Further, cooling water pipes 6, 6 are connected to the lower surface side of the lower electrode 4, and a high frequency power source 8 is connected to the lower electrode 4 via a matching circuit 7.
is connected. Further, a gas introduction pipe 9 for introducing etching gas into the vacuum container 1 is connected to the upper electrode 5 via a shutoff valve 10. Furthermore, along the inside of the vacuum vessel 1, a coating member 11 made of alumina with a thickness of several feet is disposed. It is divided into a part that covers the bottom surface and a part that covers the lower surface of the lid 2. The part that covers the F side of the lid 2 is fixed together with the lower electrode 5 by screwing, and the other parts are fixed to the vacuum container. It is only placed within 1.

Therefore, in this embodiment, even when a chlorine-based gas is used as the etching gas, the coating member 11 protects the workpiece 2 from iron, nickel, etc. generated from the stainless steel material.
contamination can be reliably prevented. In addition, when cleaning the inside of the vacuum container 1, listen to the lid 2 and cover the covering member 1.
1, the time required to expose the inside of the vacuum container 1 to the atmosphere can be shortened, and a replacement covering member 11 can be prepared (if possible, just by replacing the covering member 11, The etching process can be restarted immediately.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the plasma etching apparatus according to the present invention is configured such that the alumina covering member is removably disposed along the inside of the vacuum container, so that the vacuum container is made of stainless steel and Even when a type etching gas is used, contamination of the object to be processed can be reliably prevented. Further, by taking out the covering member from the vacuum container, maintenance such as cleaning can be easily performed, and furthermore, there are effects such as high economical efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention. 1... Vacuum container, 2... Roof, 3... Processing object, 4
... lower electrode, 5 ... upper electrode, 6 ... cooling water pipe, 7 ... matching circuit, 8 ... high frequency power supply, 9 ...
... Gas introduction pipe, 10 ... Shutoff valve, 11 ... Covering member.

Claims (1)

[Claims] The object to be processed is fixed to one side of parallel plate electrodes arranged in a vacuum container, and an etching gas is introduced into the vacuum container, and high frequency power is applied to the electrode to generate plasma. A plasma etching apparatus for etching a workpiece, characterized in that an alumina covering member is removably disposed along the inside of the vacuum container.