Tokyo Electron Limited

Techno Quartz Inc.

Katsutoshi Hoshino

Kosuke Imafuku

Masahide Kato

Yasuhiro Umetsu

A method is provided of refurbishing a quartz glass component which has been contaminated and eroded due to continuous use in a plasma process apparatus for semiconductor manufacturing. In the method, a surface deposit on the quartz glass component is removed by an appropriate cleaning method which is determined depending on the contamination status, and presence or absence of residual deposit on the cleaned component is carefully inspected through irradiating with light of a predetermined wavelength to cause fluorescence effect. Then the eroded portion of the quartz glass component is restored to the original state by flame treatment and precision machining. As a result, the refurbishment method can increase the mechanical strength of the quartz glass component, enhance the productivity and yield ratio through efficient use of the remaining materials of the quartz glass.

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Yamagata, Japan

Katsutoshi Hoshino