Aixtron Se

Aviza Technology Limited

Asml Us, Inc.

Dan Lester Cossentine

Richard Savage

Bruce E Mayer

Frank S Menagh

Helder R Carvalheira

Philip A Troiani

Eric R Vaughan

Niloy Mukherjee

Stephen E Savas

M Ziaul Karim

Subramanian Tamilmani

Hae Young Kim

Miguel Angel Saldana

Stephen Edward Savas

During a pre-treat process, hydrogen plasma is used to remove contaminants (e.g., oxygen, carbon) from a surface of a wafer. The hydrogen plasma may be injected into the plasma chamber via an elongated injector nozzle. Using such elongated injector nozzle, a flow of hydrogen plasma with a significant radial velocity flows over the wafer surface, and transports volatile compounds and other contaminant away from the wafer surface to an exhaust manifold. A protective liner made from crystalline silicon or polysilicon may be disposed on an inner surface of the plasma chamber to prevent contaminants from being released from the surface of the plasma chamber. To further decrease the sources of contaminants, an exhaust restrictor made from silicon may be employed to prevent hydrogen plasma from flowing into the exhaust manifold and prevent volatile compounds and other contaminants from flowing from the exhaust manifold back into the plasma chamber.

Method and apparatus for surface preparation prior to epitaxial deposition

A semiconductor wafer processing system including a multi-chamber module having vertically-stacked semiconductor wafer process chambers and a loadlock chamber dedicated to each semiconductor wafer process chamber. Each process chamber includes a chuck for holding a wafer during wafer processing. The multi-chamber modules may be oriented in a linear array. The system further includes an apparatus having a dual-wafer single-axis transfer arm including a monolithic arm pivotally mounted within said loadlock chamber about a single pivot axis. The apparatus is adapted to carry two wafers, one unprocessed and one processed, simultaneously between the loadlock chamber and the process chamber. A method utilizing the disclosed system is also provided.

Semiconductor wafer processing system with vertically-stacked process chambers and single-axis dual-wafer transfer system

Growing community of inventors

Santa Cruz, CA, United States of America

Dan Lester Cossentine