Method for cleaning a vacuum system, method for vacuum processing of a substrate, and apparatus for vacuum processing a substrate
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorManuel Radek
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for cleaning a vacuum chamber, particularly a vacuum chamber used in the manufacture of OLED devices is described. The method includes cleaning at least one of an inside of the vacuum chamber and a component inside the vacuum chamber with active species, a process gas for generating the active species includes at least 90% oxygen and 5 at least 2% argon, particularly, wherein the process gas includes about 95% oxygen and about 5% argon.
Claims14
A method for cleaning a vacuum chamber, comprising:
- cleaning at least one of a surface of a vacuum chamber and a component inside the vacuum chamber with an active species,
- wherein the cleaning comprises:
- igniting a remote plasma source at a first pressure;
- determining an average distance of walls of the vacuum chamber;
- reducing the first pressure in the remote plasma source to a second pressure at least three orders of magnitude smaller than the first pressure, the second pressure corresponding to an active species mean free path length of 20% to 97% of the determined average distance of the walls of the vacuum chamber;
- and
- introducing the active species from the remote plasma source to the vacuum chamber at the second pressure;
- wherein a process gas for generating the active species includes at least 90% oxygen and at least 2% argon.
A method for vacuum processing a substrate to manufacture OLED devices, comprising:
- cleaning at least one of a surface of a vacuum chamber and a component inside the vacuum chamber with an active species, wherein the cleaning comprises:
- igniting a remote plasma source at a first pressure,
- determining an average distance of walls of the vacuum chamber,
- reducing the first pressure in the remote plasma source to a second pressure at least three orders of magnitude smaller than the first pressure, the second pressure corresponding to an active species mean free path length of 20% to 97% of the determined average distance of the walls of the vacuum chamber,
- introducing the active species from the remote plasma source to the vacuum chamber at the second pressure, and
- depositing one or more layers of an organic material on the substrate,
- wherein a process gas for generating the active species includes at least 90% oxygen and at least 2% argon.
An apparatus for vacuum processing a substrate, comprising:
- a vacuum chamber;
- a remote plasma source connected to the vacuum chamber, the remote plasma source has a process gas inlet and a conduit for an active species;
- and
- a controller comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, are configured to cause the apparatus to perform a method comprising:
- cleaning at least one of a surface of the vacuum chamber and a component inside the vacuum chamber with the active species,
- wherein the cleaning comprises:
- igniting the remote plasma source at a first pressure,
- determining an average distance of walls of the vacuum chamber;
- reducing the first pressure in the remote plasma source to a second pressure at least three orders of magnitude smaller than the first pressure, the second pressure corresponding to an active species mean free path length of 20% to 97% of the determined average distance of the walls of the vacuum chamber, and
- introducing the active species from the remote plasma source to the vacuum chamber at the second pressure, and
- wherein a process gas for generating the active species includes at least 90% oxygen and at least 2% argon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.