Applied Materials, Inc.

Varian Associates, Inc.

Other

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Siamak Salimian

Paul E Luscher

James D Carducci

Michael D Welch

Evans Yip Lee

Hamid Noorbakhsh

Tom K Cho

Hongching Shan

Yao-Hung Yang

Richard Raymond Mett

Mahmoud Dahimene

Mike Welch

Chien-Min Liao

Homgqing Shan

Shamouil Shamouilian

Bryan Y Pu

Dennis Stanley Grimard

Lumin Li

Claes H Bjorkman

Hongqing Shan

Rongping Wang

Michelangelo Delfino

Brad L Mays

Sudhir R Gondhalekar

Yixing Lin

Aniruddha Pal

Ramesh Gopalan

Boon Sen Chan

Hsiu Yang

Chun-Chung Chen

Bu-Chin Chung

Carol M Heller

Hamid Norrbakhsh

Muhammad M Rasheed

Ananda H Kumar

Dien-Yeh Wu

Peter K Loewenhardt

Arnold Kholodenko

Farhad K Moghadam

Canfeng Lai

M Ziaul Karim

Padmanabhan Krishnaraj

Zhong Qiang Hua

James E Nulty

Jianmin Qiao

Rolf A Guenther

Michael G Chafin

Yikai Chen

Bruno Geoffrion

Kevin A Papke

Harry S Whitesell

Robert Duncan

Efrain Quiles

Andrew S Yu

Ji Ding

Rudolf Gujer

Paul Arleo

Kaushik Vaidya

Yuri Trachuk

Earl Hunter

Son M Phi

Eric Ruhland

Yi Nung Wu

Jeevan Shanbhag

Saurabh M Chaudhari

Shagun P Maheshwari

Tasnuva Tabassum

David Ganon

Jim Carducci

Yu-Chi Yeh

Mark Steven Contreras

Hsui Yang

Mariana Luigi

Chi-Feng Liu

Scott Lin

Philip Wayne Nagle

Diana E Gujer, Legal Representative

Seal for an assembly in a vapor deposition chamber

Methods and apparatus for a baking chamber for processing a chamber component are provided herein. In some embodiments, a baking chamber includes: an enclosure defining a first chamber, wherein the first chamber comprises: a first chamber body having a first floor and first sidewalls that couple the first floor to a first lid of the first chamber body to define a first interior volume; a first support disposed in the first interior volume; a first gas line disposed in the first interior volume proximate the first lid; a first showerhead disposed between the first gas line and the first support; a first exhaust coupled to the first floor; and a first heater disposed in the first interior volume between the first support and the first floor; and wherein the enclosure includes a door configured to facilitate transferring the chamber component into and out of the enclosure.

High throughput and metal contamination control oven for chamber component cleaning process

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method to identify and track parts of a semiconductor processing chamber, as well as the status of the parts, and store status information in a centralized location as status changes over time.

Method and system for improving the operation of semiconductor processing

Certain embodiments provide a method and non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions that, when executed by a processor of a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method for improving operation of a semiconductor processing system. The method of part life estimation generally includes obtaining a chamber part having a first surface portion and second surface portion. A data matrix in the first portion of the chamber part is read. The data matrix has raised features. The first portion of the chamber part is cleaned. Wear on the raised features is evaluated. The part is discarded in response to the wear on the raised feature.

Part-life estimation utilizing feature metrology

Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus, systems and methods for measuring dissociation of a process gas generated by a RPS. In one embodiment, a method of measuring dissociation of a process gas includes receiving a process gas from a RPS, the process gas including a polyatomic molecule that dissociates into at least one free radical. The method further includes irradiating the process gas with IR radiation at one or more wavelengths, detecting the IR radiation that passes through the process gas, and determining a degree of dissociation of the polyatomic molecule in the process gas based, at least in part, on the detected IR radiation. In one embodiment, the method further comprises modifying one or more settings of the RPS, based, at least in part, on the determined degree of dissociation.

Inline measurement of process gas dissociation using infrared absorption

An RF plasma generator configured to ignite and maintain a plasma from one or more processing gases is disclosed. A switch mode power supply is configured to convert a DC voltage from a DC power source to an RF voltage. A resonance circuit is configured to deliver an amount of power to an ignited plasma from the switch mode power supply. A plasma controller is configured to operate the power supply to apply an RF voltage corresponding to the amount of power to the one or more processing gases through the resonance circuit. The RF voltage increases in amplitude and decreases in frequency until the one or more processing gasses are ignited into a plasma. Responsive to detecting ignition of the plasma, the plasma controller is further configured to continuously adjust the frequency of the switch mode power supply to deliver the amount of power to the ignited plasma. The amount of power is a substantially constant amount of power.

Method and apparatus for actively tuning a plasma power source

A method of reclaiming a used seal includes boiling the used seal in a liquid, and after boiling the used seal in the liquid, baking the used seal. The boiling the used seal may include boiling for a predetermined boiling time in the liquid, and the baking the used seal may include baking the used seal for a predetermined bake time at a predetermined temperature.

Method of reclaiming a seal

Disclosed herein is a poly-crystalline protective coating on a surface of a chamber component. The poly-crystalline protective coating may be deposited by thermal spraying and may comprise cubic yttria and monoclinic yttria. At least one of: (1) the ratio of the cubic yttria to monoclinic yttria, (2) the crystallite size of at least one of the cubic yttria or the monoclinic yttria, (3) the atomic ratio of oxygen (O) to yttria (Y), and/or (4) the dielectric properties of the poly-crystalline protective coating may be controlled to obtain consistent chamber performance when switching coated chamber components within a chamber of interest.

Protective yttria coating for semiconductor equipment parts

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a gas distribution system which distributes the gas more uniformly into a process chamber. In one embodiment, a gas distribution system comprises a gas ring including an outer surface and an inner surface, and a gas inlet disposed at the outer surface of the gas ring. The gas inlet is fluidicly coupled with a first channel which is disposed between the outer surface and the inner surface of the gas ring. A plurality of gas outlets are distributed over the inner surface of the gas ring, and are fluidicly coupled with a second channel which is disposed between the outer surface and the inner surface of the gas ring. A plurality of orifices are fluidicly coupled between the first channel and the second channel. The plurality of orifices are spaced from the gas inlet by a plurality of distances, and have sizes which vary with the distances from the gas inlet as measured along the first channel, such that the size of the orifice increases with an increase in the distance between the orifice and the gas inlet as measured along the first channel.

Gas distribution system for improved transient phase deposition

A substrate processing system has a housing that defines a process chamber. A substrate holder disposed within the process chamber supports a substrate during substrate processing. A gas-delivery system introduces a gas into the process chamber. A pressure-control system maintains a selected pressure within the process chamber. A high-density plasma generating system forms a plasma having a density greater than 10ions/cmwithin the process chamber. A radio-frequency bias system generates an electrical bias on the substrate at a frequency less than 5 MHz. A controller controls the gas-delivery system, the pressure-control system, the high-density plasma generating system, and the radio-frequency bias system.

Low-frequency bias power in HDP-CVD processes

In a substrate vacuum processing chamber, a second inner slit passage door apparatus and method to supplement the normal slit valve and its door at the outside of the chamber. The inner slit passage door, blocks the slit passage at or adjacent the substrate processing location in a vacuum processing chamber to prevent process byproducts from depositing on the inner surfaces of the slit passage beyond the slit passage door and improves the uniformity of plasma in the processing chamber by eliminating a large cavity adjacent to the substrate processing location into which the plasma would otherwise expand. The inner slit passage door is configured and positioned in such a way as to avoid generating particles from the opening and closing motion of the second slit valve door, as it does not rub against any element of the chamber during its motion and the inner slit passage door is positioned with a predetermined gap from adjacent pieces and the door configuration includes beveled surfaces to further reduce the chance for particle generation, even when there is deposition of process byproducts on the door and its adjacent surfaces.

Double slit-valve doors for plasma processing

Methods and systems are provided for depositing silicon oxide in a gap on a substrate. The silicon oxide is formed by flowing a process gas into a process chamber and forming a plasma having an overall ion density of at least 10ions/cm. The process gas includes H, a silicon source, and an oxidizing gas reactant, and deposition into the gap is achieved using a process that has simultaneous deposition and sputtering components. The probability of forming a void is reduced by ensuring that the plasma has a greater density of ions having a single oxygen atom than a density of ions having more than one oxygen atom.

Methods and systems for high-aspect-ratio gapfill using atomic-oxygen generation

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for cleaning substrates. The cleaning chamber defines a processing cavity adapted to accommodate a substrate therein. In one embodiment, the cleaning chamber includes a chamber body having a processing cavity defined therein. A substrate is disposed in the processing cavity without contacting other chamber components by a Bernoulli effect and/or by a fluid cushion above and/or below the substrate. Fluid is flowed into the processing cavity at an angle relative to a radial line of the substrate to induce and/or control rotation of the substrate during a cleaning and drying process.

Configurable single substrate wet-dry integrated cluster cleaner

A plasma chamber apparatus and method employing a magnet system to block the plasma within the chamber interior from reaching the exhaust pump. An exhaust channel between the chamber interior and the pump includes a magnet and at least one deflector that creates turbulence in the flow of exhaust gases. The magnetic field and the turbulence produced by the deflector both increase the rate of recombination of charged particles in the gases, thereby reducing the concentration of charged particles sufficiently to quench the plasma downstream of the magnet and deflector, thereby preventing the plasma body within the chamber from reaching the exhaust pump. The plasma confinement effect of the magnetic field permits the use of a wider and/or less sinuous exhaust channel than would be required to block the plasma without the magnetic field. Therefore, the pressure drop across the exhaust channel can be reduced in comparison with prior art designs that rely entirely on the sinuousness of the exhaust channel to block the plasma. Alternatively, if the magnetic field is strong enough, the magnetic field alone can block the plasma from reaching the exhaust pump without the need for any deflector in the exhaust channel.

Magnetic barrier for plasma in chamber exhaust

The temperature of a plasma chamber of a semiconductor fabrication tool is maintained substantially constant utilizing a variety of techniques, separately or in combination. One technique is to provide the exterior surface of the plasma chamber dome with a plurality of fins projecting into high velocity regions of an overlying airflow in order to dissipate heat from the chamber. Ducting defined by cover overlying the exposed exterior surface of the dome may also feature projecting lips or an airfoil to place high velocity components of the airflow into contact within the exterior dome surface and the fins. Other techniques include employing a high speed fan to control airflow circulation, and the use of temperature sensors in communication the fan through a processor to control fan speed and thereby regulate chamber temperature.

Temperature controlled dome-coil system for high power inductively coupled plasma systems

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Siamak Salimian