Method and apparatus for plasma cleaning of workpieces

Abstract

A method and apparatus for plasma cleaning a workpiece (W) in a plasma-cleaning chamber (20) having an interior region (30). The method comprises the steps of first, loading the workpiece into the plasma cleaning chamber interior region. The next step is pumping down the plasma cleaning chamber interior region down to a pre-determined pressure, with hydrogen as the ambient gas. The next step is forming from the hydrogen gas a plasma (36) having an ion density in the range between 1010 and 1013 cm3 and an ion energy lower than 30 eV The last step is exposing the workpiece to the plasma for a predetermined time. The apparatus of the present invention preferably includes first and second vacuum processing chambers (20 and 120), wherein the first chamber performs the plasma cleaning of the workpiece according to the method of the invention, and the second chamber performs an additional process step, e.g., depositing a metal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.