Porous ceramic liner for a plasma source
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsKartik Ramaswamy, Kwok Manus Wong, Ashish Bhatnagar, Mehran Moalem, Tony S. Kaushal, Shamouil Shamouilian
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plasma tube comprising a vacuum sealing ceramic outer tube, a porous ceramic insert disposed on the inside wall of the outer tube, and a source of high frequency radiation, for example, an RF coil wrapped around the tube, to excite gas flowing through the bore of the insert into a plasma. The invention is particularly useful as an exhaust scrubber for oxidizing exhaust gases from a semiconductor processing chamber. A catalyst may be embedded in the porous insert to promote the scrubbing reaction. The invention may also be used in an applicator of a remote plasma source.
Claims20
A plasma tube, comprising:
- a vacuum sealing ceramic outer tube;
- a porous ceramic inner tube formed from a material that is porous throughout and disposed and slidably fitted within said outer tube through a center bore of which a gas passes;
- and
- an RF inductive coil wrapped around said outer tube to couple RF energy into said center bore to excite said gas into a plasma.
A plasma tube, comprising:
- a vacuum sealing ceramic outer tube;
- a porous ceramic inner tube having a porosity of between 30 and 80% and disposed within said outer tube through a center bore of which a gas passes, wherein said outer tube is coated onto said inner tube;
- and
- an RF inductive coil wrapped around said outer tube to couple RF energy into said center bore to excite said gas into a plasma.
A plasma tube, comprising:
- a first dielectric, vacuum sealing tube;
- a second dielectric tube disposed inside said first tube having a porosity of between 30 and 80% and including a central bore;
- and
- electromagnetic means positioned on a side of said first tube capable of exciting a gas contained in said central bore into a plasma.
A self-cleaning semiconductor processing system, comprising:
- a vacuum chamber capable of holding therein a substrate to be processed in a processing gas supplied to said chamber;
- a vacuum pumping system removing said processing gas and gaseous products of said processing gas from said vacuum chamber through a pumping port;
- an abatement plasma system and said vacuum pumping system and comprising
- a vacuum sealing outer ceramic tube,
- a porous inner ceramic tube having a porosity of between 30 and 80% and disposed inside of said outer tube and having an inner bore connected in a pumping path between said pumping port and a downstream pump of said vacuum pumping system, and
- an inductive coil wrapped around said outer tube and connectable to a source of RF power.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.