Systems and methods for eliminating flourine residue in a substrate processing chamber using a plasma-based process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9601319-B1
Application number	US-201614990320-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 7, 2016
Priority date	Jan 7, 2016
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

A method for operating a substrate processing chamber includes after performing a process using a fluorine-based gas in the substrate processing chamber: a) during a first predetermined period, supplying a gas mixture to the substrate processing chamber including one or more gases selected from a group consisting of molecular oxygen, molecular nitrogen, nitric oxide and nitrous oxide and supplying RF power to strike plasma in the substrate processing chamber; b) during a second predetermined period after the first predetermined period, supplying molecular hydrogen gas and RF power to the substrate processing chamber; c) repeating a) and b) one or more times; d) purging the substrate processing chamber with molecular nitrogen gas; e) increasing chamber pressure; f) evacuating the substrate processing chamber; and g) repeating d), e) and f) one or more times.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a substrate processing chamber, comprising:
after performing a process using a fluorine-based gas in the substrate processing chamber:
a) during a first predetermined period, supplying a gas mixture to the substrate processing chamber including one or more gases selected from the group consisting of molecular oxygen, molecular nitrogen, nitric oxide and nitrous oxide and supplying RF power to strike plasma in the substrate processing chamber;
b) during a second predetermined period after the first predetermined period, supplying molecular hydrogen gas and RF power to the substrate processing chamber;
c) repeating a) and b) one or more times;
d) purging the substrate processing chamber with molecular nitrogen gas;
e) increasing chamber pressure;
f) evacuating the substrate processing chamber; and
g) repeating d), e) and f) one or more times.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting a pressure in the substrate processing chamber to a first predetermined pressure during a).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first predetermined pressure is in a range from 400 mTorr to 3 Torr.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising setting the pressure in the substrate processing chamber to a second predetermined pressure during b).

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second predetermined pressure is in a range from 400 mTorr and 3 Torr.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising setting the pressure in the substrate processing chamber to a third predetermined pressure during c).

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the third predetermined pressure is in a range from 5 Torr and 15 Torr.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RF power in a) is in a range from 500 W to 2 kW.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising supplying an RF bias to a substrate support arranged in the substrate processing chamber.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the RF bias is in a power range from 100 W to 500 W.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more gases are supplied at a flow rate between 100 and 5000 sccm.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the molecular hydrogen is supplied at a flow rate between 500 and 3000 sccm.

Assignees

• Lam Res Corp

Inventors

• Bravo Andrew Stratton
• Guha Joydeep
• Pharkya Amit

Classifications

• H10P72/0421

  for drying etching · CPC title

• B08B7/00

  Cleaning by methods not provided for in a single other subclass or a single group in this subclass · CPC title

• C23C16/4405

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

• H01J37/32862 Primary

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

• H01L21/67069

  Electricity · mapped topic