Nitrogen injection for ARC lamps
AssigneesMattson Technology, Inc., Beijing E-Town Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd.
InventorsRolf Bremensdorfer, Dave Camm, Pete Lembesis, Joseph Cibere
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for reducing contamination of one or more arc lamps are provided. One example implementation is directed to a millisecond anneal system. The millisecond anneal system includes a processing chamber for thermally treating a substrate using a millisecond anneal process. The system further includes one or more arc lamps. Each of the one or more arc lamps is coupled to a water loop for circulating water through the arc lamp during operation of the arc lamp. The system includes a reagent injection source configured to introduce a reagent, such as nitrogen gas, into water circulating through the arc lamp during operation of the arc lamp.
Claims9
A method of operating a water loop for circulating water through an arc lamp in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
- obtaining, by one or more control devices comprising one or more processors;
- data indicative of a pH-value of water circulating through the water loop;
- obtaining, by the one or more control devices, data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation;
- adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of the water;
- wherein adjusting the pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp comprises controlling, by the one or more control devices, a flow of nitrogen gas into the water circulating through the arc lamp.
A method of operating a water loop for circulating water through an arc lamp in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
- obtaining, by one or more control devices comprising one or more processors, data indicative of a pH-value of water circulating through the water loop;
- obtaining, by the one or more control devices, data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation;
- adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of the water,
- wherein adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp comprises:
- determining, by the one or more control devices, an operating position for a nitrogen injection valve for injecting nitrogen into the water loop based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of water circulating through the arc lamp and the data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation;
- and
- controlling, by the one or more control devices, the nitrogen injection valve based on the determined operating position, and
- wherein the operating position for the nitrogen injection valve is determined to be open when the pH-value of the water is above an upper limit and the state of arc lamp operation is an on state.
A method of operating a water loop for circulating water through an arc lamp in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
- obtaining, by one or more control devices comprising one or more processors, data indicative of a pH-value of water circulating through the water loop;
- obtaining, by the one or more control devices, data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation;
- and
- controlling, by the one or more control devices, a flow of non-plasma-generating gas into the water circulating through the arc lamp based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH of the water circulating through the arc lamp and the data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation to adjust a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.