Dense oxide coated component of a plasma processing chamber and method of manufacture thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9546432-B2
Application number	US-201514817742-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 4, 2015
Priority date	Mar 27, 2013
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

A method of forming a dense oxide coating on an aluminum component of semiconductor processing equipment comprises cold spraying a layer of pure aluminum on a surface of the aluminum component to a predetermined thickness. A dense oxide coating is then formed on the layer of pure aluminum using a plasma electrolytic oxidation process, wherein the plasma electrolytic oxidation process causes the layer of pure aluminum to undergo microplasmic discharges, thus forming the dense oxide coating on the layer of pure aluminum on the surface of the aluminum component.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming a dense oxide coating on an aluminum component of semiconductor processing equipment comprising:
cold spraying a pure aluminum layer on a surface of the aluminum component to a predetermined thickness; and
forming a dense oxide coating on the pure aluminum layer using a plasma electrolytic oxidation process, wherein the plasma electrolytic oxidation process causes the pure aluminum layer to undergo microplasmic discharges forming the dense oxide coating on the pure aluminum layer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein (a) the pure aluminum layer comprises by weight at least about 99.9% purity and at most about 0.1% incidental impurities; or (b) the pure aluminum layer comprises by weight at least about 99.93% purity and at most about 0.07% incidental impurities.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising (a) anodizing the aluminum component before cold spraying the pure aluminum layer on the surface of the aluminum component; (b) cleaning the dense oxide coating; and (c) depositing a pure yttrium oxide barrier layer on the dense oxide coating.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dense oxide coating comprises aluminum oxide in an α-alumina crystalline phase.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pure aluminum layer is cold sprayed to a thickness of about 0.05 to 3 mm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein (a) the pure aluminum layer is cold sprayed to a thickness of about 0.1 to 0.3 mm; and/or (b) the dense oxide coating is formed to a thickness of about 0.05 to 0.2 mm.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aluminum component is at least one of a chamber wall, chamber liner, baffle, gas distribution plate, gas distribution ring, chucking mechanism, edge ring, gas nozzle, fastener, shroud, and confinement ring.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein (a) the pure aluminum layer has a porosity of less than about 1%; and/or (b) the dense oxide coating has a porosity of less than about 0.5%.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein (a) the pure aluminum layer has a porosity of less than about 0.5%; and/or (b) the dense oxide coating has a porosity of less than about 0.2%.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aluminum component is a chamber wall of a plasma etching apparatus wherein semiconductor substrates undergo plasma etching.

Assignees

• Lam Res Corp

Inventors

• Shih Hong
• Xu Lin
• Kerns John Michael
• Charles William
• Daugherty John
• Ramanathan Sivakami
• Ormond Russell
• O'Neill Robert G
• Stevenson Tom

Classifications

• H10P72/0421

  for drying etching · CPC title

• H10P72/0402

  Apparatus for fluid treatment (H10P72/0441, H10P72/0448 take precedence) · CPC title

• H10P54/00

  Cutting or separating of wafers, substrates or parts of devices · CPC title

• H10P50/242

  of Group IV materials · CPC title

• H10P14/6336 Primary

  in the presence of a plasma [PECVD] · CPC title