Abstract: A radio frequency (RF) grounding rod employed in a plasma chamber of semiconductor equipment is disclosed. The RF grounding rod includes a contact head and a main rod. The contact head is electrically connected to an RF mesh of the plasma chamber. The main rod is coated with a conductive layer of gold, silver, nickel, aluminum or copper. One end is connected to the contact head, and the other end is electrically connected to a grounding base of the plasma chamber to form an electrical conductive path. The main rod is formed of an upper rod, a lower rod and connection therebetween. The connection can be formed by soldering gold, silver, nickel, aluminum, copper or the alloy thereof, or by an engagement of a screw portion and a nut portion.

Abstract: The radio frequency (RF) grounding apparatus of the present invention uses a clamp to clamp an RF grounding rod by surface contact to improve the connection stability. The clamp is connected to a flexible conductive sheet to form a grounding path to avoid the arcing generated by the bottom part (e.g., a heater) of a traditional plasma reaction chamber and to avoid breakage of the ceramic surface of the bottom part of the plasma reaction chamber, which would be caused by the RF grounding rod due to thermal expansion. The heater of the plasma reaction chamber, which is equipped with the RF grounding apparatus of the present invention, exhibits an extended lifetime. The top of the RF grounding rod is fixed to an RF mesh, and the RF grounding rod extends downward. The bottom of the RF grounding rod is clamped firmly and electrically by the clamp. The flexible conductive sheet connects the clamp and the grounding base of the plasma reaction chamber to form a grounding path.