US2011232567A1PendingUtilityA1

Method of cleaning the filament and reactor's interior in facvd

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Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LTDPriority: Mar 25, 2010Filed: Mar 25, 2010Published: Sep 29, 2011
Est. expiryMar 25, 2030(~3.7 yrs left)· nominal 20-yr term from priority
Inventors:Jozef BrckaOsayuki Akiyama
C23C 16/46B08B 7/0035H01J 37/32862H01J 37/32449H01J 37/32889C23C 16/52C23C 16/503H01J 37/32091H01J 37/32165C23C 16/4405
54
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Claims

Abstract

A method of operating a filament assisted chemical vapor deposition (FACVD) system. The method includes depositing a film on a substrate in a reactor of the FACVD system. During the depositing, a DC power is supplied to a heater assembly to thermally decompose a film forming material. The method also includes cleaning the heater assembly, or an interior surface of the reactor, or both. During the cleaning, an alternating current is supplied to the heater assembly to energize a cleaning media into a plasma.

Claims

exact text as granted — not AI-modified
1 . A method of operating a filament assisted chemical vapor deposition (FACVD) system, the method comprising:
 (i) depositing a film on a substrate on a substrate support in a reactor of the FACVD system, wherein the depositing comprises:
 (a) flowing film forming materials including a precursor to a gas delivery system configured to distribute the film forming materials to a processing space within the reactor; 
 (b) supplying a DC power to a heater assembly positioned between the gas delivery system and the substrate support, wherein the DC power is sufficient to thermally decompose at least a portion of the film forming materials; 
 (c) continuing the flowing of the film forming materials and the supplying of the DC power for a deposition time; then 
 (d) terminating the flowing of the film forming materials and the supplying of the DC power; and 
 (e) removing the substrate from the substrate support; and 
   (ii) cleaning the heater assembly and interior surfaces of the reactor of the FACVD system, wherein the cleaning comprises:
 (a) flowing a cleaning media into the processing space; 
 (b) supplying an alternating current to the heater assembly with a power level that is sufficient to energize at least a portion of the cleaning media into a plasma; and 
 (c) exposing the interior surfaces of the reactor and the heater assembly to the plasma for a cleaning time. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1  further comprising:
 (iii) repeating the depositing or the cleaning, or terminating the operating of the FACVD system. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the alternating current is provided by an AC power supply operating within a frequency range of about 10 Hz to about 1 kHz. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein the AC power supply is operable at a power ranging from about 100 W to about 5 kW. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein the AC power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by at least one capacitor. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 5 , wherein the AC power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by two or more capacitors and a power splitter provides the alternating current to the two or more capacitors in parallel. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 3 , wherein the AC power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by at least one transformer. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the alternating current is provided by an RF power supply operating within a frequency range of about 3 MHz to about 100 MHz. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the RF power supply further includes a matching network. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the RF power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by at least one capacitor. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein the RF power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by two or more capacitors and a power splitter that provides the alternating current to the two or more capacitors in parallel. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the DC power is provided by a DC power supply coupled to the heater assembly by at least one inductor. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the film is deposited onto a batch comprised of two or more substrates. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the heater assembly includes a plurality of ribbon conductor pairs. 
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 14 , wherein the plurality of ribbon conductor pairs are electrically connected in parallel. 
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the walls of the reactor are constructed from a metallic material, and wherein a grounding port of the alternating current is coupled to the walls of the reactor. 
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the film forming materials further include an initiator, a carrier gas, a porogen, a catalyst, or a cross-linker, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the cleaning media includes inert gases, reactive gases, or solvents, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         19 . The method according to  claim 18 , wherein the solvent is tetrafluoromethane. 
     
     
         20 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the cleaning step further comprises:
 (d) etching at least a portion of a film deposit from at least one of the heater assembly, or the interior surfaces of the reactor, or both.   
     
     
         21 . The method according to  claim 20 , wherein the etching generates a volatile product, the method further comprises:
 (e) evacuating the volatile product from the reactor through a vacuum pumping system coupled to the reactor.   
     
     
         22 . An FACVD system comprising:
 an FACVD reactor; and   a controller programmed to operate the FACVD reactor according to the method of  claim 1 .   
     
     
         23 . A cleaning method for a filament assisted chemical vapor deposition (FACVD) system having a reactor enclosing a processing space, a substrate support positioned at a first end of the processing space, a gas delivery system positioned at a second end of the processing space, and a heater assembly positioned between the gas delivery system and the substrate support, whereby at least one of an interior surface of the reactor or the heater assembly includes a film deposited thereon, wherein the cleaning method comprises:
 flowing a cleaning media into the processing space;   supplying an alternating current to the heater assembly with a power level that is sufficient to energize at least a portion of the cleaning media into a plasma; and   exposing the interior surfaces of the reactor and the heater assembly to the plasma, thereby etching at least a portion the film from at least one of the interior surface, or the heater assembly, or both.   
     
     
         24 . The method according to  claim 23 , wherein the alternating current is provided by an AC power supply operating within a frequency range of about 10 Hz to about 1 kHz. 
     
     
         25 . The method according to  claim 24 , wherein the AC power supply is operable at a power ranging from about 100 W to about 5 kW. 
     
     
         26 . The method according to  claim 24 , wherein the AC power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by at least one capacitor or at least one transformer. 
     
     
         27 . The method according to  claim 26 , wherein the AC power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by two or more capacitors and a power splitter provides the alternating current to the two or more capacitors in parallel. 
     
     
         28 . The method according to  claim 23 , wherein the alternating current is provided by an RF power supply operating within a frequency range of about 3 MHz to about 100 MHz. 
     
     
         29 . The method according to  claim 28 , wherein the RF power supply further includes a matching network. 
     
     
         30 . The method according to  claim 28 , wherein the RF power supply is coupled to the heater assembly by two or more capacitors, whereby a power splitter provides the alternating current to the two or more capacitors in parallel. 
     
     
         31 . The method according to  claim 23 , wherein the cleaning media includes inert gases, reactive gases, or solvents, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         32 . The method according to  claim 23 , wherein the etching generates a volatile product that is evacuated from the reactor through a vacuum pumping system coupled to the reactor. 
     
     
         33 . A filament assisted chemical vapor deposition (FACVD) system comprising:
 a reactor enclosing a processing space;   a substrate support positioned at a first end of the processing space;   a gas delivery system positioned at a second end of the processing space;   a heater assembly positioned between the gas delivery system and the substrate support;   a DC power supply electrically coupled to the heater assembly, the DC power supply operable to supply sufficient energy to the heater assembly to thermally decompose a gas within the processing space; and   an alternating current supply coupled to the heater assembly, the alternating current supply operable to supply sufficient energy to the heater assembly to ignite a plasma within the processing space.   
     
     
         34 . The FACVD system of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 a controller programmed to operate the reactor during a film forming process and in accordance with a film forming recipe.   
     
     
         35 . The FACVD system of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 a controller programmed to operate the reactor during a cleaning process.

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