Apparatus and method for treating surfaces of semiconductor wafers using ozone
OwnerIn Kwon Jeong, Yong Bae Kim +1inventors
InventorsIn Kwon Jeong, Yong Bae Kim, Jungyup Kim
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for treating surfaces of semiconductor wafers with a reactive gas, such as ozone, utilizes streams of gaseous material ejected from a gas nozzle structure to create depressions on or holes through a boundary layer of processing fluid formed on a semiconductor wafer surface to increase the amount of reactive gas that reaches the wafer surface through the boundary layer. The apparatus and method may be used to clean a semiconductor wafer surface and/or grow an oxide layer on the wafer surface by oxidation.
Claims57
A method for treating a surface of an object with a reactive gas comprising:
- forming a processing fluid layer on said surface of said object;
- and
- ejecting at least one stream of reactive gas onto said processing fluid layer on said surface of said object to create a hole in said processing fluid layer so that stream of reactive gas directly contacts and reacts with said surface of said object, said reactive gas consisting of ozone gas.
A method for treating a surface of an object with a reactive gas comprising:
- forming a processing fluid layer on said surface of said object;
- and
- ejecting multiple streams of gaseous material onto said processing fluid layer on said surface of said object such that multiple holes are formed in said processing fluid layer, including introducing said reactive gas through said multiple holes to allow said reactive gas to direct contact and react with said surface of said object, said reactive gas consisting of ozone gas.
A method for treating a surface of an object with a reactive gas comprising:
- forming a processing fluid layer on said surface of said object;
- ejecting at least one stream of inert gas onto said processing fluid layer on said surface of said object to create a hole in said processing fluid layer;
- and
- ejecting at least one stream of reactive gas into said holes to allow said reactive gas to directly contact and react with said surface of said object.
A method for treating a surface of an object with a reactive gas comprising:
- forming a processing fluid layer on said surface of said object;
- and
- ejecting at least one stream of reactive gas onto said processing fluid layer on said surface of said object to create a hole in said processing fluid layer so that said reactive gas directly contacts and reacts with said surface of said object, said reactive gas consisting of ozone gas and at least one other gas selected from a group consisting of nitrogen gas, HF vaporized gas and IPA vaporized gas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.