ION CURRENT-DENSITY AND ITS UNIFORMITY AT THE ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON RESONANCE POSITION IN ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON RESONANCE PLASMA

Extremely high and uniform ion current density is achieved at the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) position in a microwave cavity resonator with a 260 mm diam. Microwave power is most efficiently absorbed at the ECR position in the ECR plasma. The uniformity of the ion current density at the ECR position is 15 +/- 0.75 mA/cm2 in a 200 mm diam area. This high and uniform ion current density is accomplished with a large quartz window size with a 170 mm diam for microwave introduction and a flat profile of the 875 G equimagnetic field position. The ECR plasma etching system equipped with this microwave cavity resonator that is 260 mm in diameter has a high potential for uniform and high rate pattern fabrication in a ULSI circuit on a more than 6 in. diam substrate.