Sequential cascading of reaction volumes as a chemical reuse strategy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9162209-B2
Application number	US-201313779056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2013
Priority date	Mar 1, 2012
Publication date	Oct 20, 2015
Grant date	Oct 20, 2015

Abstract

A substrate processing system includes one or more processing chambers defining N reaction volumes. N-1 first valves are arranged between the N reaction volumes. A controller communicates with the N-1 first valves and is configured to pressurize a first one of the N reaction volumes with precursor gas to a first target pressure, wait a first predetermined soak period, evacuate a second one of the N reaction volumes to a second target pressure that is lower than the first target pressure, and open one of the N-1 first valves between the first one of the N reaction volumes and a second one of the N reaction volumes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing system comprising:
N processing chambers defining N reaction volumes, wherein N is an integer greater than one;
N-1 first valves arranged between the N reaction volumes, wherein a reaction volume refers to a volume in which a substrate is exposed to a precursor gas;
a controller in communication with the N-1 first valves and configured to:
pressurize a first one of the N reaction volumes with the precursor gas to a first target pr…

Assignees

• Novellus Systems Inc

Inventors

• Leeser Karl

Classifications

• C23C16/45557 Primary

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• Y10T137/86389

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y10T137/87249

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B01J19/0006 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• Y10T137/0318

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic