Nitrogen injection for ARC lamps

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10966286-B2
Application number	US-201615380139-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2016
Priority date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for reducing contamination of one or more arc lamps are provided. One example implementation is directed to a millisecond anneal system. The millisecond anneal system includes a processing chamber for thermally treating a substrate using a millisecond anneal process. The system further includes one or more arc lamps. Each of the one or more arc lamps is coupled to a water loop for circulating water through the arc lamp during operation of the arc lamp. The system includes a reagent injection source configured to introduce a reagent, such as nitrogen gas, into water circulating through the arc lamp during operation of the arc lamp.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a water loop for circulating water through an arc lamp in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
obtaining, by one or more control devices comprising one or more processors; data indicative of a pH-value of water circulating through the water loop;
obtaining, by the one or more control devices, data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation;
adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of the water;
wherein adjusting the pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp comprises controlling, by the one or more control devices, a flow of nitrogen gas into the water circulating through the arc lamp.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp comprises:
determining, by the one or more control devices, an operating position for a nitrogen injection valve for injecting nitrogen into the water loop based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of water circulating through the arc lamp and the data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation; and
controlling, by the one or more control devices, the nitrogen injection valve based on the determined operating position.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the operating position for the nitrogen injection valve is determined to be open when the pH-value of the water is above an upper limit and the state of arc lamp operation is an on state.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the operating position for the nitrogen injection valve is determined to be closed when the state of arc lamp operation is an off state.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the operating position for the nitrogen injection valve is determined to be closed when the pH-value of the water is below a lower limit.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the upper limit is about 7.0 and the lower limit is about 6.5.

7. A method of operating a water loop for circulating water through an arc lamp in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
obtaining, by one or more control devices comprising one or more processors, data indicative of a pH-value of water circulating through the water loop;
obtaining, by the one or more control devices, data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation;
adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of the water,
wherein adjusting a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp comprises:
determining, by the one or more control devices, an operating position for a nitrogen injection valve for injecting nitrogen into the water loop based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH-value of water circulating through the arc lamp and the data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation; and
controlling, by the one or more control devices, the nitrogen injection valve based on the determined operating position, and

wherein the operating position for the nitrogen injection valve is determined to be open when the pH-value of the water is above an upper limit and the state of arc lamp operation is an on state.

8. A method of operating a water loop for circulating water through an arc lamp in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
obtaining, by one or more control devices comprising one or more processors, data indicative of a pH-value of water circulating through the water loop;
obtaining, by the one or more control devices, data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation; and
controlling, by the one or more control devices, a flow of non-plasma-generating gas into the water circulating through the arc lamp based at least in part on the data indicative of the pH of the water circulating through the arc lamp and the data indicative of the state of arc lamp operation to adjust a pH-value of the water circulating through the arc lamp.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the non-plasma-generating gas comprises nitrogen.

Assignees

• Mattson Tech Inc
• Beijing E Town Semiconductor Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Bremensdorfer Rolf
• Camm Dave
• Lembesis Pete
• Cibere Joseph

Classifications

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title

• H10P72/0436

  mainly by radiation · CPC title

• H10P72/0434

  mainly by convection · CPC title

• H01J61/526

  heating or cooling of electrodes · CPC title