Serial thermal processor arrangement

Abstract

A serial thermal processing arrangement for treating a wafer of semiconductor material, comprising one or more of the following steps of: loading the wafer into a chamber at an initial station on a rotatable table at atmospheric pressure and purging the chamber with nitrogen gas; rotating the wafer to a first subsequent station, introducing formic acid vapor and nitrogen, heating the wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; rotating the wafer to a second subsequent station, introducing formic acid vapor and nitrogen, heating the wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; rotating the wafer to a third subsequent station, introducing a vacuum onto the wafer, heating the wafer in the absence of chemical treatment; rotating the wafer to a fourth subsequent station, introducing formic acid vapor and nitrogen, heating the wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; rotating the wafer to a fifth subsequent station, introducing nitrogen gas, and cooling the wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; and rotating the wafer to a last or sixth subsequent station for unloading the wafer from its chamber.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.