Reducing particulate contamination during semiconductor device processing
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorAnand Gupta
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process of removing particles from the surface of a substrate to be processed in a vacuum chamber comprising forming a plasma from an inert plasma precursor gas in said chamber, thereby lifting loosely adhered particles from the surface of the substrate, and increasing the flow of said inert gas without increasing the pressure in the vacuum chamber, thereby sweeping the particles beyond the surface of the substrate, where they can be removed by the vacuum chamber exhaust system. Particles having a particle size of about 0.1 micron or larger can be removed in this fashion.
Claims7
A method of removing particles from the surface of a substrate to be processed in a vacuum chamber comprising the following steps in sequence;
- a) lifting loosely adhered particles from the surface of said substrate by turning on a plasma from an inert plasma precursor gas, and
- b) increasing the flow of said inert plasma precursor gas to sweep the lifted particles beyond the surface of said substrate.
A method according to claim i wherein the pressure in said vacuum chamber is maintained at about 50 millitorr or less.
A method of removing particles from the surface of a substrate to be processed in a vacuum chamber comprising the following steps in sequence;
- a) lifting loosely adhered particles from the surface of said substrate by turning on a plasma from an inert plasma precursor gas, and
- b) increasing the flow of said insert plasma precursor gas to sweep the lifted particles beyond the surface of said substrate and repeating steps a) and b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.