Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Curtis Warren Bailey

Anand Chandrashekar

Leonard Wai Fung Kho

Bo Gong

Fayaz A Shaikh

Huatan Qiu

Gang Liu

Geoffrey Hohn

Guangbi Yuan

Damodar Rajaram Shanbhag

Andrew H Breninger

Fengyuan Lai

Rohit Khare

Chen-Hua Hsu

Krishna Birru

Tony Kaushal

Nick Linebarger

William Schlosser

Thadeous Bamford

Ming Chu Li

Richard M Blank

Mohamed Sabri

James Samuel Sims

Sirish K Reddy

Damien Martin Slevin

Jacob Lee Hiester

Stephen Lau

Xiaolan Chen

Brad Laird

Saangrut Sangplug

George Andrew Antonelli

Easwar Srinivasan

James Forest Lee

Andrew John McKerrow

Eugene Smargiassi

Nick Ray Linebarger, Jr

Kevin M McLaughlin

Michael John Janicki

Matthew Mudrow

Alexander R Fox

Troy Daniel Ribaudo

Casey Holder

Devon Pelkey

Mitchell Lamar

A pedestal assembly including a pedestal for supporting a substrate. A central shaft positions the pedestal at a height during operation. A ring is placed along a periphery of the pedestal. A ring adjuster subassembly includes an adjuster flange disposed around a middle section of the central shaft. The subassembly includes a sleeve connected to the adjuster flange and extending from the adjuster flange to an adjuster plate disposed under the pedestal. The subassembly includes ring adjuster pins connected to the adjuster plate and extending vertically from the adjuster plate. Each of the ring adjuster pins being positioned on the adjuster plate at locations adjacent to and outside of a pedestal diameter. The ring adjuster pins contacting an edge undersurface of the ring. The adjuster flange coupled to at least three adjuster actuators for defining an elevation and tilt of the ring relative to a top surface of the pedestal.

Dynamic sheath control with edge ring lift

Forming a protective coating ex situ in an atomic layer deposition process to coat one or more chamber components subsequently installed in a reaction chamber provides a number of benefits over more conventional coating methods such as in situ deposition of an undercoat. In certain cases the protective coating may have a particular composition such as aluminum oxide, aluminum fluoride, aluminum nitride, yttrium oxide, and/or yttrium fluoride. The protective coating may help reduce contamination on wafers processed using the coated chamber component. Further, the protective coating may act to stabilize the processing conditions within the reaction chamber, thereby achieving very stable/uniform processing results over the course of processing many batches of wafers, and minimizing radical loss. Also described are a number of techniques that may be used to restore the protective coating after the coated chamber component is used to process semiconductor wafers.

Ex situ coating of chamber components for semiconductor processing

A plasma processing system is provided. The system includes a chamber, a controller and a showerhead disposed in the chamber. A first gas manifold is connected to the showerhead for providing a first gas from a first gas source responsive to control from the controller. A shower-pedestal is disposed in the chamber and oriented opposite the showerhead. A second gas manifold is connected to the shower-pedestal for providing a second gas from a second gas source responsive to control from the controller. A substrate support for holding a substrate at a spaced apart relationship from the shower-pedestal is provided. A radio frequency (RF) power supply for providing power to the showerhead to generate a plasma is provided. The plasma is used for depositing a film on a back-side of the substrate, when present in the chamber. The substrate is held by the substrate support in the spaced apart relationship from the shower-pedestal, during backside deposition. The showerhead provides a purge gas during the backside deposition.

PECVD deposition system for deposition on selective side of the substrate

A showerhead for a plasma chamber comprises a resistive heater configured to receive power to heat the showerhead of the plasma chamber, and a resistive element thermally bonded to the showerhead of the plasma chamber. The resistive element changes resistance in response to a change in temperature of the showerhead. The resistive element is encapsulated in an insulating material to electrically insulate the resistive element from the showerhead. The insulating material is a good conductor of heat. The power to the resistive heater is received based on the resistance of the resistive element.

Controlling showerhead heating via resistive thermal measurements

An envelope of an ultraviolet (UV) bulb comprises a tube of UV transmissive material configured to contain a UV emissive material and a plasma resistant coating on an inner surface of the tube wherein the coating has been deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and is the only material attached to the inner surface of the tube. The tube can be an endless tube having a circular shape and the coating can be an ALD aluminum oxide coating. The UV transmissive material can comprise quartz or fused silica and the tube can have a wall thickness of about 1 to about 2 mm. The coating can have a thickness of no greater than about 200 nm such as about 120 nm to 160 nm. The circular tube can be formed into a torus shape which can have an outer diameter of about 200 mm and the tube itself can have an outer diameter of about 30 mm. The ALD aluminum oxide coating can be a pinhole free conformal coating. A UV bulb comprising the envelope can contain mercury and inert gas such as argon with pressure inside the UV bulb below 100 Torr. A method of curing a film on a semiconductor substrate, comprises supporting a semiconductor substrate in a curing chamber and exposing a layer on the semiconductor substrate to UV radiation produced by the UV bulb. Other uses include semiconductor substrate surface cleaning or sterilization of fluids and objects.

High power low pressure UV bulb with plasma resistant coating

Apparatuses and methods for cleaning a semiconductor processing chamber is provided. The semiconductor processing chamber may include a UV radiation source, a substrate holder, and a UV transmissive window. The UV transmissive window may include one or multiple panes. One or more panes of the UV transmissive window may be non-reactive with fluorine containing chemistries. In multi-pane windows a purge gas flow path may be formed in the gap between windows. A purge gas may be flowed through the purge gas flow path to prevent process gases used in the chamber interior from reaching one or more panes of the UV transmissive window.

Clean resistant windows for ultraviolet thermal processing

A method for supplying vapor to a chamber includes providing a first diverter valve that, when open, diverts vapor away from the chamber, and a second diverter valve that, when open, supplies the vapor to the chamber; supplying a carrier gas to the chamber; after supplying the carrier gas, creating plasma in the chamber while a substrate is in the chamber; opening the first diverter valve and closing the second diverter valve; supplying the vapor by vaporizing at least one liquid precursor in a carrier gas; after a first predetermined period sufficient for the vapor to reach steady-state flow, closing the first diverter valve and opening the second diverter valve to supply the vapor to the chamber; and after a second predetermined period following the first predetermined period, opening the first diverter valve and closing the second diverter valve to stop supplying the vapor to the chamber.

Method for supplying vaporized precursor

A vapor delivery system for supplying vapor to a chamber in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system includes a vapor supply that supplies vapor by vaporizing at least one liquid precursor in a carrier gas. A first path includes a first filter that filters the vapor flowing from the vapor supply to the chamber. At least one second path is parallel to the first path and includes a second filter that filters vapor flowing from the vapor supply to the chamber. A plurality of valves are configured to switch delivery of the vapor to the chamber between the first path and the second path.

Precursor vapor generation and delivery system with filters and filter monitoring system

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West Linn, OR, United States of America

Curtis Warren Bailey