The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 29, 2019
Filed:
Apr. 23, 2015
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abdul Aziz Khaja, San Jose, CA (US);
Mohamad Ayoub, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Jay D. Pinson, II, San Jose, CA (US);
Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez, San Carlos, CA (US);
APPLIED MATERIALS, INC., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods for conditioning an interior wall surface of a remote plasma generator. In one embodiment, a method for processing a substrate is provided. The method includes exposing an interior wall surface of a remote plasma source to a conditioning gas that is in excited state to passivate the interior wall surface of the remote plasma source, wherein the remote plasma source is coupled through a conduit to a processing chamber in which a substrate is disposed, and the conditioning gas comprises an oxygen-containing gas, a nitrogen-containing gas, or a combination thereof. The method has been observed to be able to improve dissociation/recombination rate and plasma coupling efficiency in the processing chamber, and therefore provides repeatable and stable plasma source performance from wafer to wafer.