Patents Assigned to Tokyo Electron
  • Publication number: 20240145595
    Abstract: A semiconductor structure includes semiconductor layers stacked vertically over a substrate. The structure includes a gate structure interleaved with the semiconductor layers, where the gate structure wraps around a first end portion of each semiconductor layer. The structure includes dielectric layers stacked vertically over the substrate and interleaved with the semiconductor layers, where a first end portion of each dielectric layer is aligned with a second end portion of each semiconductor layer, which is laterally opposite to the first end portion of each semiconductor layer. The structure includes a metal contact extending vertically to contact the second end portion of each semiconductor layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: H. Jim Fulford, Mark I. Gardner
  • Publication number: 20240145312
    Abstract: A method for fabricating semiconductor devices is disclosed. The method includes forming, on a first side of a substrate, a first stack and a second stack. The method includes etching, from the first side, a portion of the substrate interposed between the first and second stacks to form a recess. The method includes filling the recess with a dielectric material to form an isolation structure. The method includes forming, on the first side, one or more first interconnect structures over the first and second stacks. The method includes removing, from a second side of the substrate opposite to the first side, a remaining portion of the substrate. The method includes forming a via structure extending through at least the isolation structure. The method includes forming, on the second side, one or more second interconnect structures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Soo Doo Chae, Matthew Baron, Hojin Kim, Sunghil Lee
  • Publication number: 20240143870
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a generation unit that generates simulation data including a plurality of combinations of unprocessed data of a workpiece and processed data of the workpiece after a process is performed on the workpiece under a predetermined process condition. Each of the plurality of combinations includes the unprocessed data and the processed data when the process is performed with a plurality of pattern densities for each of a plurality of mask shapes. The information processing apparatus further includes a derivation unit that derives simulation parameters of a shape simulator based on a closeness between predicted data that is predicted by inputting the unprocessed data included in the simulation data to the shape simulator, and the processed data combined with the unprocessed data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2023
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Hironori MOKI, Tetsuya NISHIZUKA, Masanobu HONDA, Yusuke OGAWA
  • Publication number: 20240145218
    Abstract: The disclosed plasma processing apparatus is provided with a chamber, a substrate support, and a power source system. The substrate support has an electrode and configured to support a substrate in the chamber. The power source system is electrically connected to the electrode and configured to apply a bias voltage to the electrode to draw ions from a plasma in the chamber into the substrate on the substrate support. The power source system is configured to output a first pulse to the electrode in a first period and output a second pulse to the electrode in a second period after the first period, as the bias voltage. Each of the first pulse and the second pulse is a pulse of a voltage. A voltage level of the first pulse is different from a voltage level of the second pulse.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2023
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventor: Koichi NAGAMI
  • Publication number: 20240145576
    Abstract: A method includes forming a fin structure over a substrate, the fin structure including alternating first semiconductor layers and second semiconductor layers stacked along a vertical direction; forming a dummy gate structure over the fin structure; selectively depositing an outer spacer layer on the dummy gate structure; performing a plasma doping process to form source/drain regions in each second semiconductor layer adjacent the dummy gate structure, where a portion of each second semiconductor layer interposing between the source/drain regions defines a channel region; forming a dielectric layer over the fin structure; removing the dummy gate structure to form a gate trench in the dielectric layer; selectively removing the first semiconductor layers to form openings interleaved with the second semiconductor layers; and forming a metal gate structure to fill the gate trench and the openings.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Mark I. Gardner, H. Jim Fulford, Partha Mukhopadhyay
  • Patent number: 11969879
    Abstract: A substrate accommodating device accommodating a substrate transferred by a transfer device having an end effector configured to hold a substrate and a member including a consumable part disposed in a substrate processing apparatus for processing the substrate includes a container. A first opening through which the end effector holding the substrate passes is formed on a sidewall of the container. A recess into which front ends of the end effector are inserted is formed on an inner surface of the container facing the first opening.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventor: Masahiro Dogome
  • Patent number: 11970778
    Abstract: A processing apparatus includes: a processing container having a substantially cylindrical shape; a gas supply pipe configured to supply a gas into the processing container; and an exhaust duct extending in a longitudinal direction of the processing container to form an exhaust window configured to exhaust the gas from an interior of the processing container, a first exhaust flow path configured to exhaust, from a first side in a longitudinal direction of the exhaust window, the gas exhausted through the exhaust window, and a second exhaust flow path configured to exhaust, from a second side in the longitudinal direction of the exhaust window, the gas exhausted through the exhaust window, wherein the exhaust duct includes: a first gas introduction part configured to introduce a ballast gas into the first exhaust flow path, and a second gas introduction part configured to introduce the ballast gas into the second exhaust flow path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventor: Reita Igarashi
  • Patent number: 11972933
    Abstract: There is provided a substrate support of a plasma processing apparatus. The substrate support includes a wafer placement surface and a ring placement surface on which a first ring and a second ring disposed at an outer peripheral side of the first ring without overlapping with the first ring in a vertical direction are placed, with a hole at a boundary between the first ring and the second ring. The substrate support further includes a lifter pin having a first holding portion and a second holding portion, the second holding portion being unitary with and extending axially from a base end of the first holding portion and having a protruding portion protruding from an outer circumference of the first holding portion, and a driving mechanism configured to raise and lower the lifter pin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventor: Masahiro Dogome
  • Patent number: 11972958
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a processing tub configured to perform an etching processing therein by immersing multiple substrates in a processing liquid; a first and second discharge opening groups disposed under the substrates within the processing tub, and configured to discharge the processing liquid into the processing tub; a first adjusting device configured to change a flow rate of the processing liquid discharged from the first discharge opening group; a second adjusting device configured to change a flow rate of the processing liquid discharged from the second discharge opening group; a controller configured to control the first and second adjusting devices to perform, during the etching processing, a flow rate adjusting processing of increasing and decreasing the flow rate of the processing liquid discharged from the first discharge opening group and the flow rate of the processing liquid discharged from the second discharge opening group to different values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Takumi Honda, Hiroyuki Masutomi
  • Patent number: 11971144
    Abstract: A processing apparatus includes: a processing container configured to accommodate a substrate; a storage tank connected to the processing container via a gas supply pipe; a pressure sensor configured to detect a pressure in the storage tank; a valve provided in the gas supply pipe between the processing container and the storage tank; and a controller configured to control an opening degree of the valve based on the pressure in the storage tank detected by the pressure sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventor: Seiya Nasu
  • Patent number: 11969827
    Abstract: A processing apparatus configured to process a processing target object includes a holder configured to hold the processing target object; a holder moving mechanism configured to move the holder in a horizontal direction; a modifying device configured to radiate laser light to an inside of the processing target object to form multiple internal modification layers in a spiral shape; a modifying device moving mechanism configured to move the modifying device in the horizontal direction; and a controller configured to control an operation of forming the internal modification layers. The controller controls operations of the holder and the modifying device such that a spiral processing movement according to the formation of the internal modification layers and an eccentricity follow-up movement of correcting an eccentric amount between the holder and the processing target object held by the holder are shared by the holder and the modifying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Hayato Tanoue, Yohei Yamashita, Yohei Yamawaki, Hirotoshi Mori
  • Patent number: 11970767
    Abstract: A method of forming a metal-containing nitride film containing silicon includes: supplying a metal-containing gas into a processing container in which a substrate is accommodated; supplying a silicon-containing gas into the processing container; and supplying a nitrogen-containing gas into the processing container, wherein a series of processes, in which the supplying the metal-containing gas and the supplying the silicon-containing gas are executed n times in this order (where n is an integer of one or more) and then the supplying the nitrogen-containing gas is executed, is repeated m times in this order (where m is an integer of one or more).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Taichi Monden, Tetsu Zenko, Kazuki Ota
  • Patent number: 11970768
    Abstract: There is provided a method of forming a silicon nitride film on a substrate having first and second films formed thereon, wherein the first film and the second film have different incubation times. The method includes: supplying a processing gas composed of a silicon halide having Si—Si bonds to the substrate; supplying a non-plasmarized second nitriding gas to the substrate; forming a thin silicon nitride layer covering the first film and the second film by repeating the supplying the processing gas and the supplying the second nitriding gas in a sequential order; supplying a plasmarized modifying gas to the substrate and modifying the thin silicon nitride layer; and forming the silicon nitride film on the modified thin silicon nitride layer by supplying the raw material gas and the first nitriding gas to the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Hideomi Hane, Shimon Otsuki, Takeshi Oyama, Ren Mukouyama, Jun Ogawa, Noriaki Fukiage
  • Patent number: 11971661
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a first unit block including a first substrate transfer region, a first and a second processing modules provided to face a first and a second sides of the first substrate transfer region in a left-right direction, and a first and a second transfer mechanisms provided at the first and the second sides and configured to deliver a substrate to the first and the second processing modules; a second unit block, stacked on the first unit block, including a second substrate transfer region and a third transfer mechanism; a substrate carry-in/out block provided at a first side of a stack of the unit blocks and configured to deliver the substrate to the first and the third transfer mechanisms; a relay block provided at a second side of the stack and configured to deliver the substrate to the second and the third transfer mechanisms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Yoji Sakata, Masashi Tsuchiyama, Tsuyoshi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11972921
    Abstract: A temperature measurement system includes: a thickness calculating unit that calculates an optical thickness of a substrate; a rotation position detecting unit that detects rotation position information of the rotary table; a substrate specifying unit that specifies a substrate based on the rotation position information; a storage unit that stores first relationship information indicating a relationship between a temperature and a thickness associated with each substrate, and second relationship information indicating a relationship between an amount of change in temperature and an amount of change in optical thickness associated with each substrate; and a temperature calculating unit that calculates a temperature of the substrate based on the optical thickness calculated by the thickness calculating unit, the substrate specified by the substrate specifying unit, the first relationship information, and the second relationship information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Takeshi Kobayashi, Tatsuo Matsudo
  • Patent number: 11972925
    Abstract: A plasma processing apparatus includes: a plasma processing chamber; a substrate support disposed in the plasma processing chamber and including a lower electrode; a source RF generator coupled to the plasma processing chamber and configured to generate a source RF signal including high states and low states in alternate manner; and a bias DC generator coupled to the lower electrode and configured to generate a bias DC signal including ON states and OFF states in alternate manner. Each ON state includes a plurality of cycles, each cycle including a first sequence of first pulses and a second sequence of second pulses, each first pulse having a first voltage level, and each second pulse having a second voltage level different from the first voltage level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Bong seong Kim, Ken Kobayashi, Mitsunori Ohata, Yoon Ho Bae
  • Patent number: 11972929
    Abstract: There is provided a processing apparatus for forming a film with a plasma. The processing apparatus comprises: a processing container, having a ceramic sprayed coating on an inner wall on which an antenna that radiates microwaves is arranged, configured to accommodate a substrate; a mounting table configured to mount the substrate in the processing container; and a controller configured to perform a precoating process of coating a surface of the ceramic sprayed coating with a first carbon film with a plasma of a first carbon-containing gas at a first pressure and a film forming process of forming a second carbon film on the substrate with a plasma of a second carbon-containing gas at a second pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Makoto Wada, Takashi Matsumoto, Masahito Sugiura, Ryota Ifuku, Hirokazu Ueda
  • Publication number: 20240136158
    Abstract: A plasma processing system includes a control device. The control device executes raising a lifter to deliver a cover ring supporting an edge ring to the lifter; moving a jig supported by a holder to a space between the cover ring and a substrate support surface/an annular support surface; raising a different lifter to deliver the jig to the different lifter; extracting the holder, and then moving the lifter and the different lifter relatively to deliver the edge ring to the jig; lowering only the lifter to deliver the cover ring to the annular member support surface; moving the holder to a space between the cover ring and the jig, and then lowering the different lifter to deliver the jig to the holder; and extracting the holder from the processing chamber to transfer the jig supporting the edge ring from the processing chamber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2023
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Shin MATSUURA, Kenichi KATO
  • Publication number: 20240136151
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide a solution for efficiently generating high density plasma for a physical vapor deposition (PVD). The present solution includes a vacuum chamber for a PVD process. The system can include a target located within the vacuum chamber for sputtering a material onto a wafer. The system can include a resonant structure formed by an antenna and a plurality of capacitors. The resonant structure can be configured to provide a pulsed output at a resonant frequency. The resonant structure can be configured to generate, via the antenna and based on the pulsed output, a plasma between the target and a location of the wafer to ionize the material sputtered from the target.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2022
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Barton LANE, Masaki TAKAGI
  • Patent number: 11967487
    Abstract: A forming method of a component for use in a plasma processing apparatus includes irradiating, while supplying a source material of a first ceramic and a source material of a second ceramic different from the first ceramic, an energy beam to the source material of the first ceramic and the source material of the second ceramic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Michishige Saito, Kazuya Nagaseki, Shota Kaneko