Ceradyne, Inc.

Lam Research Corporation

Shanghua Wu

Biljana Mikijelj

Mukund Srinivasan

Travis R Taylor

Bobby Kadkhodayan

K Y Ramanujam

A method of increasing mean time between cleans of a plasma etch chamber and chamber parts lifetimes is provided. Semiconductor substrates are plasma etched in the chamber while using at least one sintered silicon nitride component exposed to ion bombardment and/or ionized halogen gas. The sintered silicon nitride component includes high purity silicon nitride and a sintering aid consisting of silicon dioxide. A plasma processing chamber is provided including the sintered silicon nitride component. A method of reducing metallic contamination on the surface of a silicon substrate during plasma processing is provided with a plasma processing apparatus including one or more sintered silicon nitride components. A method of manufacturing a component exposed to ion bombardment and/or plasma erosion in a plasma etch chamber, comprising shaping a powder composition consisting of high purity silicon nitride and silicon dioxide and densifying the shaped component.

High lifetime consumable silicon nitride-silicon dioxide plasma processing components

A dense silicon carbide (SiC) material with boron (B), nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) as the only additives and with excellent insulting performance (electrical volume resistivity greater than 1&#xd7;10&#x3a9;&#xb7;cm). The SiC ceramic material, made from a powder mix of, by weight, from 0.1 to 7% boron carbide, from 0.1 to 7% silicon nitride, from 0.1 to 6% silicon dioxide, and a balance of &#x3b1;-SiC, consists essentially of (1) at least 90% by weight of &#x3b1;-SiC, (2) about 0.3 to 4.0% by weight of boron, (3) about 0.1 to 6.0% by weight of nitrogen, (4) about 0.06 to 0.5% by weight of oxygen, and (5) no more than 0.07% by weight of metallic impurities; wherein the boron and nitrogen are present according to an B/N atomic ratio of 0.9 to 1.5. In particular, this material is suitable for applications in plasma etching chambers for semiconductor and integrated circuit manufacturing.

High resistivity SiC material with B, N and O as the only additions

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Irvine, CA, United States of America

Shanghua Wu