Patents Assigned to Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
  • Patent number: 9905397
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes a beam scanner that provides reciprocating beam scanning in a beam scanning direction, a beam measurer that measures a beam current intensity distribution in the beam scanning direction at a downstream of the beam scanner, and a controller. The controller includes a scanning waveform preparing unit that determines whether or not a measured beam current intensity distribution measured by the beam measurer with use of a given scanning waveform fits a target non-uniform dose amount distribution, and that, in a case of fitting, correlates the given scanning waveform with the target non-uniform dose amount distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2018
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shiro Ninomiya, Akihiro Ochi
  • Patent number: 9837248
    Abstract: In an ion implantation apparatus, an interruption member interrupts an ion beam B in the middle of a beam line. A plasma shower device is provided at the downstream side of the interruption member in the beam line. A control unit causes the interruption member to interrupt the ion beam B during an ignition start period of the plasma shower device. The interruption member may be provided at the upstream side of at least one high-voltage electric field type electrode in the beam line. A gas supply unit may supply a source gas to the plasma shower device. The control unit may start the supply of the source gas from the gas supply unit after the ion beam B is interrupted by the interruption member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahide Ooura, Daisuke Imai, Shiro Ninomiya
  • Patent number: 9666413
    Abstract: Provided is an ion implantation apparatus including: a vacuum processing chamber in which an ion implantation process for a wafer is performed; one or more load lock chambers that are used for bringing the wafer into the vacuum processing chamber and taking out the wafer from the vacuum processing chamber; an intermediate conveyance chamber that is disposed to be adjacent to both the vacuum processing chamber and the load lock chamber; a load lock chamber-intermediate conveyance chamber communication mechanism including a gate valve capable of sealing a load lock chamber-intermediate conveyance chamber communication port; and an intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication mechanism including a movable shielding plate capable of shielding a part or the whole of the intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshito Fujii, Tetsuya Kudo, Shinji Ebisu, Suguru Hirokawa, Keiji Okada
  • Patent number: 9659755
    Abstract: A plasma generator includes: an arc chamber having a plasma generation region in which plasma is generated in the inside thereof; a magnetic field generator configured to apply a magnetic field to the plasma generation region; and a cathode configured to extend in an axial direction along an applying direction of the magnetic field applied to the plasma generation region and provided with a cathode cap that emits thermal electrons at a front end thereof. The cathode cap protrudes toward the inside of the arc chamber in the axial direction and has a shape of which a width in the radial direction perpendicular to the axial direction becomes smaller toward the inside of the arc chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2017
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masateru Sato
  • Patent number: 9659749
    Abstract: A beam extraction slit structure includes a plasma chamber interior surface that is, in operation, in contact with a plasma; a plasma chamber exterior surface that faces an extraction electrode; and a slit surface part that forms a beam extraction slit between the plasma chamber interior surface and the plasma chamber exterior surface in the beam extraction direction. The slit surface part includes a plasma meniscus fixing part formed in an area of relatively higher plasma density in the slit longitudinal direction to fixingly maintain a plasma meniscus of the plasma and a plasma meniscus non-fixing part formed in an area of relatively lower plasma density in the slit longitudinal direction to movably maintain the plasma meniscus of the plasma in the beam extraction direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2017
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES ION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masateru Sato
  • Patent number: 9576771
    Abstract: A beam current adjuster for an ion implanter includes a variable aperture device which is disposed at an ion beam focus point or a vicinity thereof. The variable aperture device is configured to adjust an ion beam width in a direction perpendicular to an ion beam focusing direction at the focus point in order to control an implanting beam current. The variable aperture device may be disposed immediately downstream of a mass analysis slit. The beam current adjuster may be provided with a high energy ion implanter including a high energy multistage linear acceleration unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kouji Inada, Kouji Kato
  • Patent number: 9564292
    Abstract: An ion beam measuring device includes: a mask that is used for shaping an original ion beam into a measuring ion beam including a y beam part elongated in a y direction that is perpendicular to a traveling direction of the ion beam and an x beam part elongated in an x direction that is perpendicular to the traveling direction and the y direction; a detection unit that is configured to detect an x-direction position of the y beam part and a y-direction position of the x beam part; and a beam angle calculating unit that is configured to calculate an x-direction beam angle using the x-direction position and a y-direction beam angle using the y-direction position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Noriyasu Ido, Kouji Inada, Kazuhiro Watanabe
  • Patent number: 9564289
    Abstract: An ion implanter includes a high-voltage power supply, a control unit that generates a command signal controlling an output voltage of the high-voltage power supply, an electrode unit to which the output voltage is applied, and a measurement unit that measures an actual voltage applied to the electrode unit. The control unit includes a first generation section that generates a first command signal for allowing the high-voltage power supply to output a target voltage, a second generation section that generates a second command signal for complementing the first command signal so that the actual voltage measured by the measurement unit becomes or close to the target voltage, and a command section that brings to the high-voltage power supply a synthetics command signal which is produced by synthesizing the first command signal and the second command signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tadanobu Kagawa, Toshio Yumiyama, Takeshi Kurose
  • Patent number: 9520265
    Abstract: A multistage quadrupole lens system in an ion implantation apparatus includes a first quadrupole lens and a third quadrupole lens. A first bore radius of the first quadrupole lens may be smaller than a third bore radius of the third quadrupole lens. The multistage quadrupole lens system may further include a second quadrupole lens placed between the first quadrupole lens and the third quadrupole lens. A second bore radius of the second quadrupole lens may take a value lying between the first bore radius of the first quadrupole lens and the third bore radius of the third quadrupole lens (i.e., an intermediate value between them).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takanori Yagita
  • Patent number: 9502759
    Abstract: An antenna cover that protects a surface of an antenna provided in a plasma chamber and exciting an electric field with a high frequency to an inner portion of the plasma chamber is provided. In the antenna cover, the thickness of the antenna cover in at least one direction among directions orthogonal to the surface of the antenna is different according to a position on the surface, such that space dependency of an electric potential on an external surface of the antenna cover decreases. In the antenna cover, the thickness of at least one direction may be changed along an extension direction of the antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shiro Ninomiya, Masateru Sato
  • Patent number: 9502210
    Abstract: An ion implanter includes: a beam deflector that deflects an ion beam passing through a previous stage beam path and outputs the beam to pass through a subsequent stage beam path toward a wafer; a beam filter slit that partially shields the beam traveling through the subsequent stage beam path and allows passage of a beam component having a predetermined trajectory toward the wafer; a dose cup that is disposed between the beam deflector and the beam filter slit and measures a part of the beam exiting from the beam deflector as a beam current; and a trajectory limiting mechanism that is disposed between the beam deflector and the dose cup and prevents a beam component having a trajectory deviated from the predetermined trajectory from being incident to a measurement region of the dose cup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Sano, Mitsukuni Tsukihara, Haruka Sasaki, Kouji Inada
  • Patent number: 9466467
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes: a plurality of units for accelerating an ion beam generated in an ion source; and a plurality of units for adjusting a scan beam and implanting ions into a wafer. A horizontal U-shaped folder type beamline having opposite long straight portions includes the plurality of units for adjusting the scan beam in a long straight portion to have substantially the same length as the ion source and the plurality of units for accelerating the ion beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsuaki Kabasawa, Kazuhiro Watanabe, Hitoshi Ando, Kouji Inada, Tatsuya Yamada
  • Patent number: 9449791
    Abstract: Provided is a beam irradiation apparatus including: a beam scanner that is configured such that a charged particle beam is reciprocatively scanned in a scanning direction; a measurement device that is capable of measuring an angular component of charged particles incident into a region of a measurement target; and a data processor that calculates effective irradiation emittance of the charged particle beam using results measured by the measurement device. The measurement device measures a time dependent value for angular distribution of the charged particle beam. The data processor transforms time information included in the time dependent value for the angular distribution to position information and thus calculates the effective irradiation emittance. The effective irradiation emittance represents emittance of a virtual beam bundle, the virtual beam bundle being formed by summing portions of the charged particle beam which are incident into the region of the measurement target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsukuni Tsukihara, Noriyasu Ido, Noriyuki Suetsugu
  • Patent number: 9431214
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes a scanning unit, the scanning unit including a scanning electrode device that allows a deflecting electric field to act on an ion beam incident along a reference trajectory and scans the ion beam in a horizontal direction, and an upstream electrode device provided upstream of the scanning electrode device. The scanning electrode device includes a pair of scanning electrodes provided to face each other in the horizontal direction with the reference trajectory interposed therebetween and a pair of beam transport correction electrodes provided to face each other in a vertical direction perpendicular to the horizontal direction with the reference trajectory interposed therebetween. Each of the pair of beam transport correction electrode includes a beam transport correction inlet electrode body protruding toward the reference trajectory in the vertical direction in the vicinity of an inlet of the scanning electrode device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Matsushita, Mitsuaki Kabasawa, Yoshitaka Amano, Takanori Yagita
  • Patent number: 9425023
    Abstract: An ion generator includes an arc chamber, a cathode that extends outward from the inside of the arc chamber in an axial direction and that emits a thermal electron into the arc chamber, a thermal reflector with a cylindrical shape provided around the cathode in a radial direction and extending in the axial direction, and a narrow structure configured to narrow a width in the radial direction of a gap between the cathode and the thermal reflector at a given position in the axial direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masateru Sato
  • Patent number: 9412561
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus includes a beam scanner, a beam measurement unit that is able to measure an ion irradiation amount distribution in a beam scanning direction at a wafer position, and a control unit that outputs a control waveform to the beam scanner for scanning an ion beam. The control unit includes an output unit that outputs a reference control waveform to the beam scanner, an acquisition unit that acquires the ion irradiation amount distribution measured for the ion beam scanned based on the reference control waveform from a beam measurement unit, and a generation unit that generates a correction control waveform by using the acquired ion irradiation amount distribution. The control unit outputs the correction control waveform so that the ion irradiation amount distribution becomes a target distribution and the ion irradiation amount distribution per unit time becomes a target value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takeshi Kurose, Noriyasu Ido, Hiroyuki Kariya
  • Patent number: 9390890
    Abstract: A high-energy ion implanter includes a high-energy multi-stage linear acceleration unit that accelerates an ion beam so as to generate a high-energy ion beam, a deflection unit that changes the direction of the high-energy ion beam toward a semiconductor wafer, and a beam transportation unit that transports the deflected high-energy ion beam to the wafer. The beam transportation unit includes a beam shaper, a high-energy beam scanner, a high-energy electric field type beam collimator, and a high-energy electric field type final energy filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsuaki Kabasawa, Kazuhiro Watanabe, Haruka Sasaki, Kouji Inada
  • Patent number: 9390889
    Abstract: An energy analysis slit of an ion implanter is configured to enable switching between a standard slit opening used for implantation processing performed under a predetermined implantation condition and a high-precision slit opening having higher energy precision than the standard slit opening and used to tune an acceleration parameter for a radio frequency linear accelerator. The acceleration parameter is determined for the predetermined implantation condition so that at least a part of ions supplied to the radio frequency linear accelerator is accelerated to have target energy, and so that the beam current amount measured by a beam measurement unit is equivalent to a target beam current amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Watanabe, Yuuji Takahashi, Yusuke Ueno
  • Patent number: 9384944
    Abstract: A beamline unit of an ion implanter includes a steering electromagnet, a beam scanner, and a beam collimator. The beamline unit contains a reference trajectory of an ion beam. The steering electromagnet deflects the ion beam in an x direction perpendicular to a z direction. The beam scanner deflects the ion beam in the x direction in a reciprocating manner to scan the ion beam. The beam collimator includes a collimating lens that collimates the scanned ion beam in the z direction along the reference trajectory, and the collimating lens has a focus at a scan origin of the beam scanner. A controller corrects a deflection angle in the x direction in the steering electromagnet so that an actual trajectory of the deflected ion beam intersects with the reference trajectory at the scan origin on an xz plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsuaki Kabasawa, Masaki Ishikawa, Yusuke Ueno
  • Patent number: 9379030
    Abstract: Provided is an ion implantation method of transporting ions generated by an ion source to a wafer and implanting the ions into the wafer by irradiating an ion beam on the wafer, including, during the ion implantation into the wafer, using a plurality of detection units which can detect an event having a possibility of discharge and determining a state of the ion beam based on existence of detected event having a possibility of discharge and a degree of influence of the event on the ion beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shiro Ninomiya, Tadanobu Kagawa, Toshio Yumiyama, Akira Funai, Takashi Kuroda