Patents Assigned to Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
  • Patent number: 10825654
    Abstract: A measurement device includes a plurality of slits, a beam current measurement unit provided at a position away from the slits in a beam traveling direction, and a measurement control unit. The beam current measurement unit is configured to be capable of measuring a beam current at a plurality of measurement positions to be different positions in a first direction perpendicular to the beam traveling direction. The slits are disposed to be spaced apart in the first direction such that the first direction coincides with a slit width direction and are configured to be movable in the first direction. The measurement control unit acquires a plurality of beam current values measured at the plurality of measurement positions to be the different positions in the first direction with the beam current measurement unit while moving the slits in the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Noriyasu Ido, Hiroyuki Kariya, Masahide Ooura
  • Patent number: 10790117
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes a first angle measuring instrument configured to measure angle information on an ion beam in a first direction, a second angle measuring instrument configured to measure angle information on the ion beam in a second direction, a relative movement mechanism configured to change relative positions of the first angle measuring instrument and the second angle measuring instrument with respect to the ion beam in a predetermined relative movement direction, and a control device configured to calculate angle information on the ion beam in a third direction perpendicular to both a beam traveling direction and the relative movement direction based on the angle information on the ion beam in the first direction measured by the first angle measuring instrument and the angle information on the ion beam in the second direction measured by the second angle measuring instrument.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yoshiaki Inda
  • Patent number: 10672586
    Abstract: A beamline device includes a deflection device deflecting an ion beam in a first direction perpendicular to a beam traveling direction by applying at least one of an electric field and a magnetic field to the ion beam. A slit is disposed such that the first direction coincides with a slit width direction. A beam current measurement device is configured to be capable of measuring a beam current at a plurality of measurement positions to be different positions in the first direction. A control device calculates angle information in the first direction on the ion beam by acquiring a plurality of beam current values measured at the plurality of measurement positions to be the different positions in the first direction by the beam current measurement device while changing a deflection amount of the ion beam in the first direction with the deflection device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sho Kawatsu, Noriyasu Ido
  • Patent number: 10497546
    Abstract: In an insulating structure which insulates an electrode provided inside a vacuum region of an ion implanter from another member and supports the electrode, a first insulating member supports the electrode. A second insulating member is fitted to the first insulating member to suppress deposition of contamination particles to the first insulating member. The second insulating member is formed of a material having a hardness lower than that of the first insulating member. A Vickers hardness of an outer surface of the second insulating member is 5 GPa or less. Bending strength of the second insulating member is 100 MPa or less. The second insulating member is formed of a material including at least one of boron nitride, a porous ceramic, and a resin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Yuuji Ishida
  • Patent number: 10490389
    Abstract: An ion implanter includes an ion source configured to generate an ion beam including an ion of a first nonradioactive nuclide, a beamline configured to support an ion beam irradiated target formed of a solid material including a second nonradioactive nuclide different from the first nonradioactive nuclide, and a controller configured to calculate at least one of an estimated radiation dosage of a radioactive ray and an estimated generation amount of a radioactive nuclide generated by a nuclear reaction between the first nonradioactive nuclide and the second nonradioactive nuclide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Matsushita, Yoshiaki Oogita
  • Patent number: 10468283
    Abstract: A first conveyance mechanism and a second conveyance mechanism convey a pair of two wafers to an alignment device from a wafer container via a buffer device, and then bring the wafers respectively into a first load lock chamber and a second load lock chamber after alignment. An intermediate conveyance mechanism conveys one of the pair of two wafers between the first load lock chamber and a vacuum processing chamber. The intermediate conveyance mechanism conveys the other of the pair of two wafers between the second load lock chamber and the vacuum processing chamber. The first conveyance mechanism and the second conveyance mechanism take out the pair of two wafers subjected to an implantation process from the first load lock chamber and the second load lock chamber and store the wafers into the wafer container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kudo, Shinji Ebisu, Yoshito Fujii
  • Patent number: 10453689
    Abstract: An ion implantation method includes: irradiating a wafer arranged to meet a predetermined plane channeling condition with an ion beam; measuring a predetermined characteristic on a surface of the wafer irradiated with the ion beam; and evaluating an implant angle distribution of the ion beam by using a result of measurement of the characteristic. The wafer may be arranged so as to include a channeling plane parallel to a predetermined reference plane parallel to a reference trajectory direction of the ion beam incident on the wafer and not to include a channeling plane perpendicular to the reference plane and parallel to the reference trajectory direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoji Kawasaki, Makoto Sano, Kazutaka Tsukahara
  • Patent number: 10403472
    Abstract: An angle measurement device includes: a slit through which an ion beam is incident, and a width direction of which is orthogonal to a beam traveling direction of the ion beam toward a wafer; and a plurality of electrode bodies which are provided at positions away from the slit in the beam traveling direction, and each of which includes a beam measurement surface that is a region which is exposed to the ion beam having passed through the slit. The plurality of electrode bodies are disposed such that the beam measurement surfaces of the electrode bodies are arranged in order in the width direction of the slit and the beam measurement surfaces adjacent to each other in the width direction of the slit deviate from each other in the beam traveling direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kazuhisa Ishibashi
  • Patent number: 10395890
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes: a multistage linear acceleration unit including a plurality of stages of high-frequency resonators and a plurality of stages of focusing lenses; a first beam measuring unit disposed in the middle of the multistage linear acceleration unit and configured to allow passage of a beam portion adjacent to a center of a beam trajectory and measure a current intensity of another beam portion blocked by an electrode body outside a vicinity of the center of the beam trajectory; a second beam measuring unit disposed downstream of the multistage linear acceleration unit and configured to measure a current intensity of an ion beam exiting from the multistage linear acceleration unit; and a control device configured to adjust a control parameter of the plurality of stages of focusing lenses based on measurement results of the first and second beam measuring units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Haruka Sasaki
  • Patent number: 10361066
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes an ion source that is capable of generating a calibration ion beam including a multiply charged ion which has a known energy corresponding to an extraction voltage, an upstream beamline that includes amass analyzing magnet and a high energy multistage linear acceleration unit, an energy analyzing magnet, a beam energy measuring device that measures an energy of the calibration ion beam downstream of the energy analyzing magnet, and a calibration sequence unit that produces an energy calibration table representing a correspondence relation between the known energy and the energy of the calibration ion beam measured by the beam energy measuring device. An upstream beamline pressure is adjusted to a first pressure during an ion implantation process, and is adjusted to a second pressure higher than the first pressure while the energy calibration table is produced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Haruka Sasaki, Katsushi Fujita
  • Patent number: 10361058
    Abstract: An ion generator includes an arc chamber which has a plasma generating region therein, a cathode configured to emit a thermoelectron toward the plasma generating region, a repeller which faces the cathode in an axial direction in a state where the plasma generating region is interposed between the cathode and the repeller, and a cage which is disposed to partially surround the plasma generating region at a position between an inner surface of the arc chamber and the plasma generating region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 10354835
    Abstract: An ion implanter includes an ion source configured to generate an ion beam including an ion of a nonradioactive nuclide, a beamline configured to support an ion beam irradiated target, and a controller configured to calculate an estimated radiation dosage of a radioactive ray generated by a nuclear reaction between the ion of the nonradioactive nuclide incident into the ion beam irradiated target and the nonradioactive nuclide accumulated in the ion beam irradiated target as a result of ion beam irradiation performed previously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hiroshi Matsushita
  • Patent number: 10283422
    Abstract: An ion implantation method includes measuring a beam energy of an ion beam that is generated by a high-energy multistage linear acceleration unit operating in accordance with a tentative high-frequency parameter, adjusting a value of the high-frequency parameter based on the measured beam energy, and performing ion implantation by using the ion beam generated by the high-energy multistage linear acceleration unit operating in accordance with the adjusted high-frequency parameter. The tentative high-frequency parameter provides a value different from a value of the high-frequency parameter for achieving a maximum acceleration in design to a high-frequency resonator in a part of stages including at least a most downstream stage. The adjusting includes changing at least one of a voltage amplitude and a phase set for the high-frequency resonator in the part including the at least most downstream stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Kariya, Hideki Morikawa, Masaki Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 10283326
    Abstract: An ion generator includes an ion source control unit that controls a gas supply unit and a plasma excitation source in accordance with a current ion source condition and a new ion source condition to be employed subsequent to the current ion source condition, a retention time obtaining unit that obtains retention time for the current ion source condition, and a pre-treatment condition setting unit that sets a pre-treatment condition defining a pre-treatment for forming a surface layer region suitable for the new ion source condition on a plasma chamber inner wall based on the current ion source condition, the retention time, and the new ion source condition. The ion source control unit is configured to control the gas supply unit and the plasma excitation source in accordance with the pre-treatment condition when the current ion source condition is changed to the new ion source condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 10249477
    Abstract: An ion implanter includes a plasma shower device configured to supply electrons to an ion beam with which a wafer is irradiated. The plasma shower device includes a plasma generating chamber provided with an extraction opening, a first electrode which is provided with an opening communicating with the extraction opening and to which a first voltage is applied with respect to an electric potential of the plasma generating chamber, a second electrode which is disposed at a position facing the first electrode such that the ion beam is interposed between the first and second electrodes and to which a second voltage is applied with respect to the electric potential of the plasma generating chamber, and a controller configured to independently control the first voltage and the second voltage to switch operation modes of the plasma shower device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Syuta Ochi, Shiro Ninomiya, Yuuji Takahashi, Tadanobu Kagawa
  • Patent number: 10217607
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes a beam scanner that provides a reciprocating beam scan in a beam scan direction in accordance with a scan waveform, a mechanical scanner that causes a wafer to reciprocate in a mechanical scan direction, and a control device that controls the beam scanner and the mechanical scanner to realize a target two-dimensional dose amount distribution on a surface of the wafer. The control device includes a scan frequency adjusting unit that determines a frequency of the scan waveform in accordance with the target two-dimensional dose amount distribution, and a beam scanner driving unit that drives the beam scanner by using the scan waveform having the frequency determined by the scan frequency adjusting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazuhisa Ishibashi, Shiro Ninomiya, Akihiro Ochi, Toshio Yumiyama
  • Patent number: 10121666
    Abstract: An ion implantation method for scanning an ion beam reciprocally in an x direction and moving a wafer reciprocally in a y direction to implant ions into the wafer is provided. The method includes: irradiating a first wafer arranged to meet a predetermined plane channeling condition with the ion beam and measuring resistance of the first wafer irradiated with the ion beam; irradiating a second wafer arranged to meet a predetermined axial channeling condition with the ion beam and measuring resistance of the second wafer irradiated with the ion beam; and adjusting an implant angle distribution of the ion beam by using results of measuring the resistance of the first and second wafers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoji Kawasaki, Makoto Sano, Kazutaka Tsukahara
  • Patent number: 10030304
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus in which a fluorine compound gas is used as a source gas of an ion source, includes a vacuum chamber into which the source gas is introduced; an introduction passage connected to the vacuum chamber and configured to introduce into the vacuum chamber a cleaning gas containing a component that reacts with the fluorine compound deposited inside the vacuum chamber so as to generate a reactant gas; a delivery device configured to forcibly introduce the cleaning gas into the introduction passage; a first adjustment device configured to adjust an amount of gas flow in the introduction passage; an exhausting passage connected to the vacuum chamber and configured to forcibly exhaust the reactant gas along with the cleaning gas; and a second adjustment device configured to adjust an amount of gas flow in the exhausting passage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takayuki Nagai, Masateru Sato
  • Patent number: 9984856
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus performs a plurality of ion implantation processes having different implantation conditions to a same wafer successively. The plurality of ion implantation processes are: (a) provided so that twist angles of the wafer differ from each other; (b) configured so that an ion beam is irradiated to a wafer surface to be processed that moves in a reciprocating movement direction; and (c) provided so that a target value of a beam current density distribution of the ion beam is variable in accordance with a position of the wafer in the reciprocating movement direction. Before performing the plurality of ion implantation processes to the same wafer successively, a control device executes a setup process in which a plurality of scanning parameters corresponding to the respective implantation conditions of the plurality of ion implantation processes are determined collectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shiro Ninomiya, Yasuharu Okamoto, Akihiro Ochi, Yusuke Ueno
  • Patent number: 9984851
    Abstract: An ion implanter includes an energy analyzer electromagnet provided between an ion source and a processing chamber. The energy analyzer electromagnet includes a Hall probe configured to generate a measurement output in response to a deflecting magnetic field and an NMR probe configured to generate an NMR output. A control unit of the ion implanter includes a magnetic field measurement unit configured to measure the deflecting magnetic field in accordance with a known correspondence between the deflecting magnetic field and the measurement output, a magnetic field determination unit configured to determine the deflecting magnetic field from the NMR output, and a Hall probe calibration unit configured to update the known correspondence by using the deflecting magnetic field determined from the NMR output and a new measurement output of the Hall probe corresponding to the determined deflecting magnetic field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Kariya