Method and apparatus for abatement of reaction products from a vacuum processing chamber

An abatement method for destroying fluorocarbons consisting essentially of gaseous fluorocarbons exhausted from a vacuum processing chamber in which a semiconductor substrate is processed, the method comprising:

• processing the semiconductor substrate in the vacuum processing chamber thereby producing gaseous reaction products including the gaseous fluorocarbons;
• flowing an exhaust gas containing fluorocarbons consisting essentially of the gaseous fluorocarbons from the vacuum processing chamber through a reaction chamber downstream of the vacuum processing chamber;
• introducing water vapor as a reactant into the exhaust gas proximate to the vacuum processing chamber in an amount effective to minimize recombination of dissociated fluorocarbons, hydrogen from the water vapor reacting with the dissociated fluorocarbons to form HF, and oxygen from the water vapor reacting with at least one of C, S and N in the exhaust gas to form at least one of the gases COx, SOx, and NOx, or a mixture thereof in gaseous form;
• applying RF power to the gas in the reaction chamber to generate a plasma in the reaction chamber which dissociates the fluorocarbons in the exhaust gas;
• and
• reacting gas exhausted from the reaction chamber with at least one of Si and W downstream of the reaction chamber.

An abatement method for destroying fluorocarbons, consisting essentially of:

• processing a semiconductor substrate in a vacuum processing chamber thereby producing gaseous reaction products including gaseous fluorocarbons;
• flowing an exhaust gas containing the gaseous reaction products and fluorocarbons from the vacuum processing chamber through a reactant mixing chamber proximate to the vacuum processing chamber and then through a reaction chamber downstream from the reactant mixing chamber, wherein both the reactant mixing chamber and reaction chamber are in flow communication with the vacuum processing chamber;
• introducing water vapor into the exhaust gas in the reactant mixing chamber in an amount effective to reduce recombination of dissociated fluorocarbons in the gaseous reaction products, hydrogen from the water vapor reacting with the dissociated fluorocarbons so as to form HF in gaseous form;
• generating a plasma in the plasma reactor by applying RF power to the gas in the plasma reactor, the plasma dissociating the fluorocarbons in the exhaust gas;
• and
• optionally removing the HF from the exhaust gas downstream of the plasma reactor.

An abatement method for destroying fluorocarbons, consisting essentially of:

• plasma etching a semiconductor substrate using gaseous fluorocarbons in a vacuum processing chamber thereby producing gaseous etch reaction products including dissociated fluorocarbons;
• flowing an exhaust gas containing the remaining gaseous fluorocarbons and the dissociated fluorocarbons from the vacuum processing chamber through a reaction chamber in flow communication with the vacuum processing chamber;
• introducing water vapor into the exhaust gas proximate to the vacuum processing chamber and upstream from the reaction chamber upstream from the reaction chamber in an amount effective to reduce recombination of dissociated fluorocarbons dissociated in the vacuum processing chamber, hydrogen from the water vapor reacting with the dissociated fluorocarbons so as to form HF in gaseous form;
• generating a plasma in the reaction chamber by applying RF power to the exhaust gas in the reaction chamber, the plasma dissociating the gaseous fluorocarbons in the exhaust gas that were not previously dissociated in the vacuum processing chamber or were recombined upstream from the reaction chamber, wherein the dissociated gaseous fluorocarbons dissociated in the reaction chamber also react with hydrogen from the water vapor so as to form HF in gaseous form;
• and
• removing the HF from the exhaust gas downstream of the reaction chamber.

A fluorocarbon abatement method, comprising:

• processing a semiconductor substrate in a vacuum processing chamber using gaseous fluorocarbons thereby producing gaseous reaction products including dissociated fluorocarbons;
• flowing an exhaust gas of the remaining gaseous fluorocarbons and the dissociated fluorocarbons from the vacuum processing chamber through a reaction chamber in flow communication with the vacuum processing chamber;
• introducing water vapor into the exhaust gas proximate to the vacuum processing chamber and upstream from the reaction chamber;
• generating a plasma in the reaction chamber by applying RF power to the exhaust gas and the water vapor in the reaction chamber, the plasma dissociating the gaseous fluorocarbons in the exhaust gas;
• and
• reacting gas exhausted from the reaction chamber with one of Si and W.