Accelerated plasma clean
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsShankar N. Chandran, Scott Hendrickson, Gwendolyn D. Jones, Shankar Venkataraman, Ellie Yieh
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Abstract
A method and apparatus that reduces the time required to clean a processing chamber employing a reactive plasma cleaning process. A plasma is formed in an Astron fluorine source generator from a flow of substantially pure inert-source gas. After formation of the plasma, a flow of a fluorine source gas is introduced therein such that the fluorine source flow accelerates at a rate no greater than 1.67 standard cubic centimeters per second2 (scc/s2). In this fashion, the plasma contains a plurality of radicals and dissociated inert-source gas atoms, defining a cleaning mixture. The ratio of inert-source gas to fluorine source is greater than 1:1.
Claims15
A method for removing residue from a substrate processing system, said system having a remote plasma chamber and a substrate processing chamber in fluid communication, said method comprising:
- flowing into said remote plasma chamber, a first gas consisting essentially of inert gas at a first rate;
- forming a plasma from said first gas;
- moving, into said plasma, a flow of a fluorine source gas at a second rate, thereby creating a plurality of reactive radicals therefrom;
- increasing said second rate, with said plasma and said reactive radicals defining a cleaning mixture;
- and
- introducing said cleaning mixture into said substrate processing chamber.
A method of removing residue from a substrate processing system, said system having a remote plasma chamber and a substrate processing chamber in fluid communication, said method comprising:
- flowing into said remote plasma chamber, a first gas consisting essentially of inert gas at a first rate;
- forming a plasma from said first gas;
- moving, into said plasma, a flow of a fluorine source gas at a second rate, thereby creating a plurality of reactive radicals therefrom, with said first and second rates established to maintain, within said remote plasma chamber, a predetermined ratio of said first gas to said fluorine source gas, with said predetermined ratio being greater than 1:1;
- increasing both said first and second rates, with said plasma and said reactive radicals defining a cleaning mixture, while maintaining said ratio greater than 1:1;
- and
- introducing said cleaning mixture into said substrate processing chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.