Novellus Systems Incorporated

Lam Research Corporation

Stephen Lau

Easwar Srinivasan

Henner Meinhold

Dan M Doble

Vince Wilson

Curtis Warren Bailey

Jeffrey D Womack

Xiaolan Chen

George Andrew Antonelli

James Forest Lee

Andrew John McKerrow

Eugene Smargiassi

Kevin M McLaughlin

Matthew Mudrow

Alexander R Fox

Troy Daniel Ribaudo

Casey Holder

Mitchell Lamar

A temperature controlled showerhead for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chambers enhances heat dissipation to enable accurate temperature control with an electric heater. Heat dissipates by conduction through a showerhead stem and fluid passageway and radiation from a back plate. A temperature control system includes one or more temperature controlled showerheads in a CVD chamber with fluid passageways serially connected to a heat exchanger.

Temperature controlled showerhead

An envelope of an ultraviolet (UV) bulb comprises a tube of UV transmissive material configured to contain a UV emissive material and a plasma resistant coating on an inner surface of the tube wherein the coating has been deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and is the only material attached to the inner surface of the tube. The tube can be an endless tube having a circular shape and the coating can be an ALD aluminum oxide coating. The UV transmissive material can comprise quartz or fused silica and the tube can have a wall thickness of about 1 to about 2 mm. The coating can have a thickness of no greater than about 200 nm such as about 120 nm to 160 nm. The circular tube can be formed into a torus shape which can have an outer diameter of about 200 mm and the tube itself can have an outer diameter of about 30 mm. The ALD aluminum oxide coating can be a pinhole free conformal coating. A UV bulb comprising the envelope can contain mercury and inert gas such as argon with pressure inside the UV bulb below 100 Torr. A method of curing a film on a semiconductor substrate, comprises supporting a semiconductor substrate in a curing chamber and exposing a layer on the semiconductor substrate to UV radiation produced by the UV bulb. Other uses include semiconductor substrate surface cleaning or sterilization of fluids and objects.

High power low pressure UV bulb with plasma resistant coating

Apparatuses and methods for cleaning a semiconductor processing chamber is provided. The semiconductor processing chamber may include a UV radiation source, a substrate holder, and a UV transmissive window. The UV transmissive window may include one or multiple panes. One or more panes of the UV transmissive window may be non-reactive with fluorine containing chemistries. In multi-pane windows a purge gas flow path may be formed in the gap between windows. A purge gas may be flowed through the purge gas flow path to prevent process gases used in the chamber interior from reaching one or more panes of the UV transmissive window.

Clean resistant windows for ultraviolet thermal processing

Flow distribution networks that supply process gas to two or more stations in a multi-station deposition chamber. Each flow distribution network includes an inlet and flow distribution lines for carrying process gas to the stations. The flow distribution lines include a branch point downstream from the inlet and two or more branches downstream from the branch point. Each branch supplies a station. The flow distribution network also includes highly variable flow elements in each branch. Restrictive components are placed downstream from the variable control elements in each branch. These restrictive components are nominally identical and designed to shift the bulk of the pressure drop away from the variable flow components to improve flow balancing while not unduly increasing inlet pressure. In some cases, the load shifting allows the more variable flow components to operate in the unchoked flow regime.

Flow balancing in gas distribution networks

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Lake Oswego, OR, United States of America

Stephen Lau