Appeal 2007-3195
Application 09/824,936
Appellants’ invention is directed to a capacitively coupled RF plasma
reactor. The reactor includes, inter alia, spaced electrodes, a radio
frequency (RF) generator, at least one dielectric layer, and gas supply and
evacuation features. The reactor is constructed to handle a relatively large
wafer with at least one dimension of 0.7 m or more. The RF generator is
required to be capable of generating frequencies greater than 13.56 MHz and
the RF generator is connected to at least one electrode. Claim 1 is
illustrative and is reproduced below:
1. A capacitively coupled radiofrequency plasma reactor (1, 20)
comprising:
at least two electrically conductive electrodes (3, 5) spaced from each
other, each electrode having an external surface (3a, 5a),
an internal process space (13) enclosed between the electrodes (3, 5),
gas providing means (7) for providing the internal process space (13)
with a reactive gas,
at least one radiofrequency generator (9) for frequencies greater than
13.56 MHz connected to at least one of the electrodes (3, 5), at a connection
location (9a), for generating a plasma discharge in the process space (13),
means (8) to evacuate the reactive gas from the reactor,
at least one substrate (15) with a largest dimension of at least 0.7 m,
defining one boundary of the internal process space, to be exposed to the
processing action of the plasma discharge, said at least one substrate (15)
extending along a general surface (15a) and being arranged between the
electrodes (3, 5),
characterized in that said plasma reactor (1, 20) further comprises at
least one dielectric layer (11) have at least one non-planar external surface
2
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