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US 6,388,383 B1Granted
Method of an apparatus for obtaining neutral dissociated gas atoms
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsTuqiang Ni, Wenli Collison
Life of this patent
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AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsTuqiang Ni, Wenli Collison
Estimating the term…
A downstream stripper includes a source of dissociated electrically neutral gas atoms derived by a plasma generator responsive to gas molecules including the atoms. The plasma generator includes a chamber responsive to RF electromagnetic fields derived by two coils on opposed sides of the chamber. The coils supply the fields to the interior of the chamber via windows on the opposed sides. The chamber includes metal, electrically grounded walls and an outlet with such walls for attracting charge particles in the plasma. The interiors of the outlet and chamber walls are lined with quartz for capturing the charge particles. The electrically neutral gas atoms have a high concentration and a very low percentage of electrically charged particles flowing with them.
Apparatus for processing a workpiece, comprising a source of dissociated electrically neutral gas atoms, the source being adapted to be responsive to a gas source including molecules including the atoms, the source of neutral gas atoms including a plasma generator for converting gas from the gas source into a gaseous plasma including the gas atoms and ionized particles, the plasma generator including plural sources for deriving oscillating electromagnetic fields adapted to be coupled to gas from the gas source, the source of neutral gas atoms being arranged to capture the ionized particles so that substantially none of the ionized particles can flow through an outlet of the source of neutral gas atoms, the outlet and the chamber included in the plasma generator being arranged so that the electrically neutral gas atoms can flow through the outlet, and a processing chamber for the workpiece having an inlet connected to be responsive to gas flowing through the outlet.
A method of dissociating molecules of an ionizable gas including atoms of a desired species into electrically neutral atoms of the desired species, the method comprising applying different plasma exciting oscillating electromagnetic fields to the gas while it is in a chamber, each of the electromagnetic fields having electric field components, the electric field components being applied to the gas to form the electrically neutral gas atoms of the desired species and ionized gas particles, capturing substantially all of the ionized gas particles in the chamber, and flowing the electrically neutral atoms of the desired species through an outlet of the chamber.
A source of electrically neutral gas atoms of a desired specie adapted to be responsive to a gas source including molecules having the desired specie, the source of neutral gas atoms comprising a chamber having an inlet for connection to the source, the chamber having a metal wall arrangement and an outlet, plural oscillating electromagnetic field sources, the field sources being respectively adjacent sides of the chamber, the chamber including a window arrangement for coupling oscillating electromagnetic fields from the field sources to the interior of the chamber, the oscillating electromagnetic field sources and the windows and the inlet and outlet being positioned so the gas from the gas source flowing from the inlet to the outlet is excited to a plasma including dissociated electrically neutral gas atoms of the desired specie and charge particles, the wall arrangement being arranged and adapted to be connected to a source of electric potential and for capturing substantially all of the charge particles in the plasma to enable the dissociated electrically neutral gas atoms to flow through the outlet without a substantial amount of the charge particles in the plasma.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.