Applied Materials, Inc.

David W Carlson

H Peter Hey

A process and apparatus for depositing silicon nitride on a substrate 28 is described. The substrate 28 is placed in a deposition zone 24 within a deposition chamber 22, and a process gas comprising a silicon containing gas and a nitrogen containing gas is introduced into the deposition zone 24 through an inlet gas conduit 30. The substrate 28 is heated to a temperature T.sub.d which is sufficiently high to cause the process gas to deposit silicon nitride on the substrate 28, and the resultant process gas byproducts are exhausted through an exhaust gas conduit 32. At least one of the inlet and exhaust gas conduits 30 and 32 are heated to a temperature T.sub.h within the range .DELTA.T.sub.h, wherein all the temperatures T.sub.h are sufficiently higher than T.sub.c the temperature at which process gas condenses in the gas conduits, so that substantially no condensate deposits in the gas conduits, and all the temperatures T.sub.h are sufficiently lower than the deposition temperature T.sub.d , so that substantially no silicon nitride deposits in the gas conduits.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

David W Carlson