Texas Instruments Corporation

Ignacio Blanco

Jin Zhao

Nathan J Kruse

The present invention provides, in one embodiment, a process for cleaning a deposition chamber (). The process includes a step () of forming a reactive plasma cleaning zone by dissociating a gaseous fluorocompound introduced into a deposition chamber having an interior surface and in a presence of a plasma. The process () further includes a step () of ramping a flow rate of said gaseous fluorocompound to move the reactive plasma cleaning zone throughout the deposition chamber, thereby preventing a build-up of localized metal compound deposits on the interior surface. Other embodiments advantageously incorporate the process () into a system () for cleaning a deposition chamber () and a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices ().

Deposition tool cleaning process having a moving plasma zone

The present invention provides, in one embodiment, a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices. The method comprises transferring one or more substrate into a deposition chamber and depositing material layers on the substrate. The chamber has an interior surface. The method further includes, between the transfers, cleaning the deposition chamber using an in situ ramped cleaning process when material layer deposits in the deposition chamber reaches a predefined thickness. The in situ ramped cleaning process comprises forming a reactive plasma cleaning zone by dissociating a gaseous fluorocompound introduced into a deposition chamber in a presence of a plasma. The cleaning process further includes ramping a flow rate of the gaseous fluorocompound in a presence of the plasma to move the reactive plasma cleaning zone throughout the deposition chamber, thereby preventing a build-up of localized metal compound deposits on the interior surface.

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Allen, TX, United States of America

Ignacio Blanco