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US 11,628,478 B2Granted
Steam cleaning of CMP components
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsHaosheng Wu, Jianshe Tang, Hari Soundararajan, Shou-Sung Chang, Hui Chen, Chih Chung Chou, Alexander John Fisher, Paul D. Butterfield
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of cleaning for a chemical mechanical polishing system includes directing a gas that includes steam from an orifice onto a component in the polishing system while the component is spaced away from a polishing pad of the polishing system to clean the component, and moving the component into contact with the polishing pad.
Claims10
A method of cleaning for a chemical mechanical polishing system, comprising:
- while a component in the polishing system is spaced away from a polishing pad of the polishing system, the component comprising a carrier head or a substrate to be polished, directing out of a nozzle a wet steam aerosol component at an inter-platen station to clean polishing by-product off the component, wherein the wet steam aerosol comprises a gas component that consists of steam, wherein the wet steam aerosol comprises liquid water at a concentration of less than 5 wt % of the wet steam aerosol, wherein the wet steam aerosol is formed by mixing liquid water with steam, and wherein that wet steam aerosol has a temperature of around 40-50° C. prior to reaching the component;
- and
- moving the cleaned component into contact with the polishing pad.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.