Pre-clean chamber with wafer heating apparatus and method of use

Abstract

A reactive pre-clean chamber that contains a wafer heating apparatus, such as a high-temperature electrostatic chuck (HTESC), for directly heating a wafer supported on the apparatus during a pre-cleaning process. The wafer heating apparatus is capable of heating the wafer to the optimum temperatures required for a hydrogen plasma reactive pre-clean (RPC) process. Furthermore, degassing and pre-cleaning can be carried out in the same pre-clean chamber. The invention further includes a method of pre-cleaning a wafer using a pre-clean chamber that contains a wafer heating apparatus.

1 . A pre-clean chamber for comprising: 
 a chamber having a chamber interior;    a wafer heating apparatus in said chamber interior for supporting and heating a wafer, comprising a trench and via sidewalls etched in a dielectric layer thereon, for pre-cleaning the trench and the via sidewalls of the wafer prior to disposition of a layer thereon; and    a source RF power supply operably engaging said chamber for applying source RF energy to said chamber.    
   
   
       2 . The pre-clean chamber of  claim 1  further comprising a controller operably engaging said wafer heating apparatus for controlling a temperature of said wafer heating apparatus.  
   
   
       3 . The pre-clean chamber of  claim 1  further comprising a bias RF power supply operably connected to said wafer heating apparatus for applying bias RF power to said wafer heating apparatus.  
   
   
       4 . The pre-clean chamber of  claim 3  further comprising a controller operably engaging said wafer heating apparatus for controlling a temperature of said wafer heating apparatus.  
   
   
       5 . A pre-clean chamber for comprising: 
 a chamber having a chamber interior;    a high-temperature electrostatic chuck in said chamber interior for supporting and heating a wafer, comprising a trench and via sidewalls etched in a dielectric layer thereon for pre-cleaning the trench and the via sidewalls of the wafer prior to disposition of a layer thereon; and    a source RF power supply operably engaging said chamber for applying source RF energy to said chamber.    
   
   
       6 . The pre-clean chamber of  claim 5  further comprising a controller operably engaging said chuck for controlling a temperature of said chuck.  
   
   
       7 . The pre-clean chamber of  claim 5  further comprising a bias RF power supply operably connected to said chuck for applying bias RF power to said chuck.  
   
   
       8 . The pre-clean chamber of  claim 7  further comprising a controller operably engaging said chuck for controlling a temperature of said chuck.