Coating system and method for coating interior fluid wetted surfaces of a component of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9873940-B2
Application number	US-201414572087-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2014
Priority date	Dec 31, 2013
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

A coating system for forming an atomic layer deposition (ALD) or a molecular layer deposition (MLD) barrier coating on interior fluid wetted surfaces of a fluid handling component for a vacuum chamber of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus. The coating system includes the fluid handling component, wherein the interior fluid wetted surfaces define a process region of the coating system, a gas supply system in fluid communication with the process region of the component wherein the gas supply system supplies process gases to the process region of the component through the inlet port thereof such that an ALD or MLD barrier coating can be formed on the fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component, and an exhaust system in fluid communication with the process region of the component wherein the exhaust system exhausts the process gases from the process region of the component through the outlet port thereof.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of providing a fluid handling component with an atomic layer deposition (ALD) or molecular layer deposition (MLD) barrier coating on interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component wherein the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component form a process region for depositing the ALD or MLD barrier coating, the method comprising:
pre-assembling a plurality of components to form the fluid handling component having an inlet port and an outlet port, wherein the fluid handling component is connected through the inlet port to a gas supply system on a first end of the fluid handling component and an exhaust system is connected on a second end of the fluid handling system;
sequentially injecting atomic layer deposition gases or molecular layer deposition gases from the gas supply system into the inlet port of the fluid handling component;
providing an ALD or MLD process to form the ALD or MLD barrier coating on the interior fluid wetted surfaces; and
sequentially exhausting the atomic layer deposition gases or the molecular layer deposition gases from an the outlet port with an the exhaust system; and
disconnecting the fluid handling component from the gas supply and the exhaust system;
wherein the fluid handling component is installed upstream, downstream, or in a vacuum chamber of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequentially injecting atomic layer deposition gases or molecular layer deposition gases from the gas supply system into the inlet port of the fluid handling component comprises:
(a) injecting a pulse of a first reactant gas on the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component; and
(b) injecting a pulse of a second reactant gas on the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component to react with the first reactant gas to form a layer of the ALD or MLD barrier coating on the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component; or
(c) repeating (a) and (b) at least twice.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
(a) exhausting excess first reactant gas with the exhaust system through the outlet port after injecting the pulse of the first reactant gas; and
(b) exhausting excess second reactant gas and reaction byproduct(s) with the exhaust system through the outlet port after injecting the pulse of the second reactant gas; or
(c) repeating (a) exhausting excess first reactant gas and (b) exhausting excess second reactant gas at least twice.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
(a) heating the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component to a predetermined temperature while forming the ALD or MLD barrier coating on the interior fluid wetted surfaces; and/or
(b) vacuum sealing the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component before forming the ALD or MLD barrier coating.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-assembling the plurality of components further comprises arranging multiple fluid handling components such that the interior fluid wetted surfaces of each fluid handling component are in fluid communication with each other and the ALD or MLD barrier coating can be formed on the interior fluid wetted surfaces of each respective fluid handling component.

6. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein when the fluid handling component is mounted as part of the vacuum chamber of the semiconductor substrate processing apparatus, the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component are not exposed to a reactor space of the vacuum chamber.

7. The method, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the pre-assembling the plurality of components comprises vacuum sealing the plurality of components, wherein the ALD or MLD barrier coating forms a layer over the vacuum sealing.

8. The method, as recited in claim 7 , wherein the vacuum sealing of the plurality of components uses at least one O-ring between two of the plurality of components.

9. The method, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the ALD or MLD barrier coating is only formed on the interior fluid wetted surfaces of the fluid handling component.

Assignees

• Lam Res Corp

Inventors

• Xu Lin
• Shih Hong
• Anderson Nash
• Stevenson Tom
• Daugherty John
• Kerns John Michael
• O'Neill Robert Griffith

Classifications

• C23C16/4404

  Coatings or surface treatment on the inside of the reaction chamber or on parts thereof · CPC title

• C23C16/045

  Coating cavities or hollow spaces, e.g. interior of tubes; Infiltration of porous substrates · CPC title

• Y10T428/263

  Coating layer not in excess of 5 mils thick or equivalent · CPC title

• Y10T29/41

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y10T428/31725

  Of polyamide · CPC title