Abstract

A multi-zone multi-electrode plasma processing method for uniform plasma processing and effective in-situ fabrication reactor process chamber (10) cleaning during a plasma deposition or etch process first comprises the steps of flowing plasma deposition or etch gases into the process chamber (10) in a chopped or continuous mode (line 214) followed by flowing plasma gases into the process chamber (10) in a chopped mode (220) or a continuous mode. By intermittently activating (224) at least one plasma electrode (24 or 52) upon initiating flow of the plasma processing gas, the method generates a process plasma medium to perform the plasma-enhanced deposition or etch process. Additionally, intermittently activating the same or a different configuration of plasma electrodes (66), during the time that the process gas flows are stepped, an in-situ cleaning plasma is produced for performing a plasma-assisted chamber cleaning process. The multi-zone plasma processing method of this invention permits flexible activation of multiple plasma electrodes in a time-division-multiplexed or continuous format using one or several radio-frequency power sources in order to control plasma density and uniformity as well as ion energies near semiconductor wafer (22), process chamber walls (38), and gas showerhead (52).