US-20260125796-A1 - Processing Device and Processing Method

US20260125796A1US 20260125796 A1US20260125796 A1US 20260125796A1US-20260125796-A1

Abstract

A processing apparatus comprises a processing chamber, a gas supply source, a first excitation light source and a second excitation light source. The gas supply source is configured to supply noble gas and a processing gas into the processing chamber. The first excitation light source is configured to irradiate the processing chamber with first excitation light to excite the noble gas to a first excited state. The second excitation light source is configured to irradiate the processing chamber with second excitation light to excite the noble gas in the first excited state to a second excited state.

Inventors

Mikio Sato

Assignees

TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251229
Priority Date: 20230714

Claims (19)

1 . A processing apparatus comprising: a processing chamber; a gas supply source configured to supply noble gas and a processing gas into the processing chamber; a first excitation light source configured to irradiate the processing chamber with first excitation light to excite the noble gas to a first excited state; and a second excitation light source configured to irradiate the processing chamber with second excitation light to excite the noble gas in the first excited state to a second excited state.
2 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: an exhaust mechanism configured to reduce a pressure in the processing chamber.
3 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: an emission sensor configured to detect emission generated when the noble gas in the second excited state becomes metastable excited atoms.
4 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first excitation light is irradiated from a side portion of the processing chamber, and the second excitation light is irradiated from the top of the processing chamber.
5 . The processing apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the second excitation light source is provided in the processing chamber such that gradation in intensity of the second excitation light is formed from an upstream side toward a downstream side of the first excitation light.
6 . The processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the intensity of the second excitation light is set such that, when the upstream side and the downstream side of the first excitation light are compared, the intensity becomes weaker on the upstream side and stronger on the downstream side.
7 . The processing apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising: a placing table configured to incorporate a heater in the processing chamber, wherein the temperature of the placing table is controlled such that gradation in an output of the heater is formed so as to be reversed with respect to the gradation in the intensity of the second excitation light.
8 . The processing apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising: an emission sensor configured to detect emission generated when the noble gas in the second excited state becomes the metastable excited atoms, wherein the gradation in the intensity of the second excitation light is controlled such that the emission generated when the noble gas in the second excited state becomes the metastable excited atoms becomes uniform in a horizontal plane of the processing chamber.
9 . The processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein a plurality of the second excitation light sources are provided, and the intensity of the second excitation light is controlled for each of the plurality of second excitation light sources.
10 . The processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the gradation in the intensity of the second excitation light is formed using a light control filter.
11 . The processing apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the light control filter is a liquid crystal filter.
12 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first excitation light is irradiated into the processing chamber from the first excitation light source through a lithium fluoride window.
13 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second excitation light is irradiated into the processing chamber from the second excitation light source through an optical fiber and a quartz window.
14 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the noble gas is argon gas.
15 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing gas is a silicon-containing gas.
16 . The processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing gas is a halogen-containing gas.
17 . A processing method comprising: supplying noble gas and a processing gas into a processing chamber; exciting the noble gas to a first excited state by irradiating the processing chamber with first excitation light; exciting the noble gas in the first excited state to a second excited state by irradiating the processing chamber with second excitation light; and dissociating the processing gas with the noble gas that has become metastable excited atoms from the second excited state, thereby processing a substrate.
18 . The processing method of claim 17 , further comprising: detecting emission generated when the noble gas in the second excited state becomes the metastable excited atoms.
19 . The processing method of claim 18 , wherein in said exciting the noble gas to the second excited state, the intensity of the second excitation light is controlled based on the emission detected in said detecting the emission.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a bypass continuation application of International Application No. PCT/JP2024/023692 having an international filing date of Jul. 1, 2024 and designating the United States, the International Application being based upon and claiming the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2023-115710 filed on Jul. 14, 2023, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a processing apparatus and a processing method. BACKGROUND Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-263226 discloses a configuration in which a location where first plasma is generated is provided separately from a vacuum processing chamber accommodating a sample on the upstream side of the vacuum processing chamber, metastable atoms generated in the first plasma generation location are injected into the vacuum processing chamber, and second plasma is generated in the vacuum processing chamber. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides a processing apparatus and a processing method capable of uniformly generating metastable excited atoms. A processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present disclosure comprises a processing chamber, a gas supply source configured to supply noble gas and a processing gas into the processing chamber, a first excitation light source configured to irradiate the processing chamber with first excitation light to excite the noble gas to a first excited state, and a second excitation light source configured to irradiate the processing chamber with second excitation light to excite the noble gas in the first excited state to a second excited state. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of a configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of transition of argon gas from a ground state to metastable excited atoms. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of combination of excitation light that allows noble gas to make transition to metastable excited atoms. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of combination of excitation light that allows noble gas to make transition to metastable excited atoms. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of combination of excitation light that allows noble gas to make transition to metastable excited atoms. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a second excitation light source in the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a second excitation light source in the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the relationship between a distance from a lithium fluoride window, a generation density of atoms in a first excited state, and an intensity of second excitation light. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the relationship between a distance from a lithium fluoride window, an output of a heater, and an intensity of second excitation light. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of substrate processing in the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of a configuration of a substrate processing apparatus in a second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, embodiments of a processing apparatus and a processing method of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Further, the technique of the present disclosure is not limited to the following embodiments. Conventionally, radicals are generated using plasma, and processes are performed using the generated radicals. However, when plasma is used, ions and electrons are also generated, which results in damages due to ion bombardment or charging. Therefore, a method in which metastable excited atoms of noble gas are generated using photoexcitation, and the energy thereof is used to dissociate a processing gas to generate radicals may be considered. However, metastable excited atoms cannot be optically excited directly from the ground state and, thus, stepwise excitation using multiple light sources is required. Accordingly, when photoexcitation is used, it is expected to uniformly generate metastable excited atoms by controlling the multiple light sources. First Embodiment [Configuration of Substrate Processing Apparatus 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of a configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1, a substrate processing apparatus 1 includes a main body 10, and a controller 11 that controls the main body 10. The main body 10 includes a processing chamber 101, a placing table 102, a gas supply mechanism 103, a first excitation light source 104, a second excitation light source 105, an emission sensor 106, and an exhaust mechanism 107. The processing