Method and apparatus for cleaning a cvd chamber
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsMaosheng Zhao, Juan Rocha-Alvarez, Inna Shmurun, Soova Sen, Mao Lim, Shankar Venkataraman, Ju-Hyung Lee
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Abstract
The present invention is a method and apparatus for cleaning a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber using cleaning gas energized to a plasma in a gas mixing volume separated by an electrode from a reaction volume of the chamber. In one embodiment, a source of RF power is coupled to a lid of the chamber, while a switch is used to couple a showerhead to ground terminals or the source of RF power.
Claims13
A computer-readable medium containing software that, when executed by a controller, causes a semiconductor substrate processing system to clean a chamber for processing a substrate, said chamber having a first portion comprising a substrate support pedestal, a second portion coupled to a source of radio-frequency power, and an electrode electrically isolated from the first portion and the second portion, using a method, comprising:
- connecting the electrode to the first portion;
- supplying a cleaning gas into the chamber;
- and
- applying radio-frequency power from said source to energize the cleaning gas to a plasma within the second portion.
A semiconductor substrate processing system comprising:
- a process chamber;
- a substrate support pedestal disposed in a first portion of the process chamber;
- a radio-frequency (RF) power source coupled to a second portion of the process chamber;
- an electrode electrically isolated from the first portion and the second portion:
- a controller;
- and
- a computer-readable medium containing software that, when executed by the controller, causes the semiconductor substrate processing system to clean the process chamber using a method, comprising
- supplying a cleaning gas into the chamber;
- and
- applying radio-frequency power from said source to energize the cleaning gas to a plasma within the second portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.