Apparatus and methods for performing an in-situ etch of reaction chambers with fluorine-based radicals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12203166-B2
Application number	US-202117307007-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2021
Priority date	May 7, 2020
Publication date	Jan 21, 2025
Grant date	Jan 21, 2025

Abstract

An apparatus and method for cleaning or etching a molybdenum film or a molybdenum nitride film from an interior of a reaction chamber in a reaction system are disclosed. A remote plasma unit is utilized to activate a halide precursor mixed with an inert gas source to form a radical gas. The radical gas reacts with the molybdenum film or the molybdenum nitride film to form a by-product that is removed from the interior of the reaction chamber by a purge gas.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for cleaning an interior wall of a reaction chamber, the method comprising:
providing a reaction chamber in which a molybdenum film is deposited on an interior wall of the reaction chamber;
forming a radical gas, wherein forming the radical gas consists essentially of:
igniting a remote plasma unit by flowing an inert gas into the remote plasma unit, wherein the inert gas consists essentially of one or more of argon, helium, and nitrogen, and
flowing a halide precursor into the remote plasma unit;

flowing a gas consisting essentially of the radical gas into the reaction chamber, wherein the radical gas reacts with the molybdenum film; and
flowing a purge gas to remove a by-product of the reaction of the radical gas with the molybdenum film from the reaction chamber;
wherein the molybdenum film comprises at least one of: molybdenum; or molybdenum nitride.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reaction chamber is integral to at least one of: an atomic layer deposition (ALD) reaction system; a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reaction system; a single-wafer deposition system; a batch wafer deposition system; a vertical furnace deposition system; a cross-flow deposition system; a minibatch deposition system; or a spatial ALD deposition system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inert gas consists essentially of argon.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the halide precursor consists essentially of one or more of nitrogen trifluoride (NF 3 ); sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ), carbon tetrafluoride (CF 4 ), fluoroform (CHF 3 ), octafluorocyclobutane (C 4 F 8 ), chlorine trifluoride (ClF 3 ), or fluorine (F 2 ).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the purge gas comprises at least one of: nitrogen (N 2 ); helium (He); or argon.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising flowing a first reactant from a first reactant precursor source to deposit the molybdenum film.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first reactant comprises at least one of: a molybdenum halide precursor; a molybdenum chloride precursor; a molybdenum iodide precursor; a molybdenum bromide precursor; a molybdenum chalcogenide; a molybdenum oxychloride; a molybdenum oxyiodide; a molybdenum (IV) dichloride dioxide (MoO 2 Cl 2 ) precursor; or a molybdenum oxybromide.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of flowing the halide precursor is after the step of igniting a remote plasma unit.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a temperature of the reaction chamber ranges between −350° C. and 500° C.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein flowing the radical gas has a high flow mode, achieved by flowing the radical gas at a flowrate ranging between 2500 and 3000 sccm.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein flowing the radical gas has a low flow mode, achieved by flowing the radical gas at a flowrate ranging between 100 to 300 sccm.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interior wall comprises a quartz surface.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising passivating the quartz surface by flowing an oxygen-containing gas into the reaction chamber after the step of flowing a purge gas, wherein the oxygen-containing gas comprises at least one of: oxygen (O 2 ); water vapor (H 2 O); or hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ).

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the molybdenum film comprises molybdenum nitride.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the halide precursor comprises one or more of fluoroform (CHF 3 ), octafluorocyclobutane (C 4 F 8 ), or chlorine trifluoride (ClF 3 ).

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein a pressure of the reaction chamber ranges between 1 and 3 Torr.

Assignees

• Asm Ip Holding Bv

Inventors

• Mishra Amit
• Zope Bhushan
• Swaminathan Shankar
• Oosterlaken Theodorus G M

Classifications

• C23C16/4405 Primary

  Cleaning of reactor or parts inside the reactor by using reactive gases · CPC title

• H01J37/32862

  In situ cleaning of vessels and/or internal parts · CPC title

• C23C16/52

  Controlling or regulating the coating process {(C23C16/45557, C23C16/279 take precedence)} · CPC title

• C23C16/45536

  Use of plasma, radiation or electromagnetic fields · CPC title

• C23C16/06

  characterised by the deposition of metallic material · CPC title