Split valve air curtain
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJia-Wei XU, Yin-Bin TSENG, Kai-Shiung HSU, Chun-Sheng WU
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Contamination from outgassing during a deposition process is addressed by a series of equipment enhancements, including throttle valves, a dual air curtain, and a residual gas analysis (RGA) monitor. The dual air curtain can be configured to flow a first gas during wafer processing and a second gas during wafer unloading, to re-direct and capture outgassed species. The dual air curtain and the throttle valves can be programmed in an automated feedback control system that utilizes data from the RGA monitor.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- loading a wafer into a buffer chamber;
- transferring the wafer from the buffer chamber to a process chamber comprising a slit valve, a pump, and a dual air curtain disposed between the slit valve and the pump;
- processing the wafer in the process chamber;
- and
- transferring the wafer from the process chamber to the buffer chamber.
A system, comprising:
- a wafer station;
- a load lock adjoining the wafer station, the load lock configured to alternate between atmospheric pressure and vacuum;
- a buffer chamber adjoining the load lock;
- a vacuum chamber adjoining the buffer chamber and comprising a showerhead and a slit valve, the vacuum chamber configured to expose a wafer to gas phase reactants from the showerhead;
- and
- a dual air curtain between the slit valve and the showerhead and configured to flow a plurality of gases.
A method, comprising:
- detecting a level of contaminants in a buffer chamber using an in-situ residual gas analyzer (RGA) monitor;
- collecting data from a tool server;
- analyzing the level of contaminants and the data from the tool server to determine one or more adjustment values;
- and
- in response to the level of contaminants being above a first threshold, adjust relative flow rates of different inert gases flowing through a dual air curtain based on the one or more adjustment values.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.