Large Area Plasma for LCD Processing by Individyally Controlled Array Sources

Large area plasma source has been built for LCD etcher by an array of $2{\times}2$ ICP sources. Since only one RF power supply and one impedance matching network is used in this configuration, any difference in impedances of unit RF antennas causes unbalanced power delivery to the unit ICP. In order to solve this unavoidable unbalance, unit antenna is designed to have a movable tap, with which the inductance of each unit can be adjusted individually. The plasma density becomes symmetric and etch rate becomes more uniform with the impedance adjustment. The concept of adding axial time-varying magnetic field to the single ICP source is applied to the array ICP source, and is found to be effective in terms of etch rate and uniformity.