Chemical vapor deposition hot-trap for unreacted precursor conversion and effluent removal
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsJohn Vincent Schmitt, Ling Chen, George Michael Bleyle, Yu Cong, Alfred Mak, Mei Chang
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Abstract
A hot trap converts unreacted organic metal-film precursor from the exhaust stream of a CVD process. The converted precursor forms a metal film on the surface of the hot trap, thereby protecting hot vacuum pump surfaces from metal build up. A cold trap downstream from the hot trap freezes effluents from the exhaust stream. The metal captured by the hot trap and the effluents captured by the cold trap may then be recycled, rather than being released as environmental emissions.
Claims18
An apparatus for converting unreacted metal-film precursor in an effluent stream from a chemical vapor deposition process, the apparatus comprising:
- a hot trap coupled to a process chamber with a conduit, the hot trap receiving the effluent stream from the process chamber through the conduit, the hot trap including a heater and a plurality of removable baffles, said heater operatively coupled to said removable baffles;
- and
- a vacuum pump fluidly coupled to the process chamber downstream of the hot trap, the vacuum pump capable providing a pressure differential between an interior of the process chamber and an exhaust port of the process chamber.
An apparatus for collecting metal from an effluent stream of a substrate processing chamber, said apparatus comprising:
- a first trap fluidly coupled to receive the effluent stream from the substrate processing chamber, said first trap including a first interior surface and a heater operatively coupled to heat said first interior surface;
- a vacuum pump, operatively coupled to said substrate processing chamber on the downstream side of said first trap;
- and
- a second trap fluidly coupled to said substrate processing chamber downstream of said first trap, said second trap including a second interior surface, wherein said second trap is adapted to freeze an emission product on said second interior surface.
A substrate processing system comprising:
- a substrate processing chamber having an exhaust outlet;
- a hot trap fluidly coupled to said exhaust outlet, said hot trap including first and second opposing sections that can be fixedly attached to form an enclosed chamber having an inlet, an outlet and a collection chamber therebetween, said collection chamber including a first plurality of baffles that can be removably attached to said first section so that, when said first and second opposing sections are fixedly attached to form said enclosed chamber, said first plurality of baffles extend toward said second section, said hot trap further including a heater operatively coupled to heat said first plurality of baffles;
- and
- a vacuum pump operatively coupled to said substrate processing chamber downstream of said hot trap;
- wherein said first and second sections of said hot trap can be separated to facilitate cleaning of said hot trap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.