US 11,901,166 B2
Magnetron sputtering apparatus and magnetron sputtering method
Tetsuya Miyashita, Yamanashi (JP); Kanto Nakamura, Yamanashi (JP); and Yusuke Kikuchi, Yamanashi (JP)
Assigned to Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo (JP)
Filed by TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Sep. 30, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/490,574.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-169360 (JP), filed on Oct. 6, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0108880 A1, Apr. 7, 2022
Int. Cl. H01J 37/34 (2006.01); H01J 37/32 (2006.01); C23C 14/34 (2006.01)
CPC H01J 37/3405 (2013.01) [C23C 14/3407 (2013.01); H01J 37/3244 (2013.01); H01J 37/3455 (2013.01)] 8 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A magnetron sputtering apparatus comprising:
a vacuum chamber storing a substrate;
a plurality of sputtering mechanisms, each including a target having one surface facing inside of the vacuum chamber, a magnet array, and a moving mechanism configured to reciprocate the magnet array between a first position and a second position along a linear path on the other surface of the target in order to sputter the target;
a power supply configured to form plasma by supplying power to a target of each of selected sputtering mechanisms among the plurality of sputtering mechanisms so that the selected sputtering mechanisms perform film formation on the substrate, the other sputtering mechanisms being unselected sputtering mechanisms;
a gas supplier configured to supply a gas for plasma formation into the vacuum chamber; and
a controller configured to output a control signal, in performing the film formation, such that each of magnet arrays of at least two unselected sputtering mechanisms is stopped at a position distant from a selected sputtering mechanism between the first position and the second position, wherein extension lines from moving paths of the magnet arrays of said at least two unselected sputtering mechanisms intersect an extension line from a moving path of a magnet array of said selected sputtering mechanism in plan view, wherein the position distant from the selected sputtering mechanism is a position farther from the selected sputtering mechanism between the first position and the second position.