Arcing at e-chuck
Material  Processes  
Supplier   Chamber Principle MERIE
Topic FDC Chamber Hardware  
Reference A. Steinbach, Infineon Technologies Dresden, et al.: 'Monitoring of Process Stability and Chamber Matching by Plasma Parameter Measurement using High-speed SEERS', 4th European Advanced Equipment Control / Advanced Process Control (AEC/APC) Conference, Grenoble, France, 2003.  
   
Problem Plasma processes with additional magnetic fields tend to arcing.
Effect If not detected early, arcing causes erosion of anaodization at the chamber and generates particle.
Arcing is basically a breakthrough in an insulating layer at the chamber wall, where ever potential grown-up.

Reasons for arcing are:

  • Inhomogeneous polymer build-up at chamber wall.
  • Incorrect grounding of parts of chamber.
  • Leakage currents (ESC).

Effect on wafer / process:
Particles generation reduce the yield.

Hardware related effect:
Arcing heavily destroys chamber parts.

Effect on plasma parameters:

The plasma density is sharply decreased for short times.

Collision rate:

  • increase: large polymer molecules,
  • decrease: relative small metal ions.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plasma instabilities in the diagram above (red) indicate arcing at the e-chuck. Erosion of the anaodization near the lift pin holes are shown in the picture below.
Measure

Open the chamber and remove defect chamber parts. Realize a good grounding of all chamber parts.
Benefit

Lower maintenance costs (spare part) and reduced particle genaration.