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:
Jun. 15, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 15, 1997
Dean Denison, San Jose, CA (US);
William Harshbarger, San Jose, CA (US);
Anwar Husain, Pleasanton, CA (US);
C Robert Koemtzopoulos, Hayward, CA (US);
Felix Kozakevich, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David Trussell, Fremont, CA (US);
LAM Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for in-situ cleaning of a chuck that bears a semiconductor wafer in a semiconductor manufacturing machine maintains a processing chamber in a sealed condition with the chuck inside the chamber. A wafer bearing surface of the chuck is exposed upon determining that the chuck requires a cleaning. A cleaning gas is then injected into the chamber and RF power is applied to the chamber to create a plasma that cleans the wafer bearing surface. Since the processing chamber is maintained in a sealed condition during the in-situ cleaning of the chuck, the time required to clean the chuck and prepare the chamber for continued production runs is greatly reduced.