Reaction chamber with removable liner

Abstract

A reaction chamber assembly for thin film deposition processes or the like includes an outer wall assembly for enclosing an outer volume and a removable liner installed into the outer volume through an outer aperture for preventing precursors or reactants from coming into contact with internal surfaces of the outer wall assembly and forming thin film layers thereon. The removable liner encloses a reaction chamber and includes substrate support trays or the like for supporting substrates being coated. Thin film layers are formed onto internal surfaces of the removable liner instead of onto surfaces of the outer wall assembly. The removable liner may be disposable or may comprise stainless steel, which can be removed when contaminated, cleaned by abrasive blasting such as bead blasting, and replaced. Two removable liners can be used to periodically swap removable liners and clean one of the liners while the other is in service with minimal disruption to production coating schedules. Other removable cleanable elements such as input and output plenums, door liners and conduits comprising stainless steel can be periodically removed and cleaned by abrasive blasting.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method for operating a reaction chamber assembly comprising the steps of:
 installing a first removable liners into an outer chamber of the reaction chamber assembly through an outer aperture formed through outer walls of the outer chamber for receiving the removable liner there through;   coating a plurality of batches of one or more substrates supported inside the first removable liner with one or more material layers being applied to the one or more substrates during each coating batch, wherein each coating batch also coats internal surfaces of the first removable liner with the one or more material layers; and,   replacing the first removable liner with a second removable liner that is substantially identical with the first removable liner when the internal surfaces of the first removable liner become undesirably contaminated by the material layers coated thereon.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the reaction chamber assembly includes an access door movable to an open position suitable for loading and unloading the one or more substrates into and out of the removable liner installed into the outer volume; further comprising step of gas sealing each of the outer chamber and the removable liner by moving the access door to the closed position. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the outer chamber and the removable liner installed into the outer chamber are configured to provide a clearance gap volume disposed between internal surfaces of the outer chamber and external surfaces of the removable liner installed in the outer chamber, further comprising the step of creating a pressure gradient between the clearance gap volume and the a reaction chamber enclosed by the removable liner installed by delivering a purge gas into the clearance gap volume. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each of the first and the second removable liners is constructed from a material suitable removing the one or more material layers formed therefrom by a cleaning process that is performed repeatedly, further comprising the steps of:
 cleaning the first removable liner of the one or more material layers formed on while coating a plurality of batches of one or more substrates in the second removable liner; 
 replacing the second removable liner with the first removable liner when internal surfaces of the second removable liner become undesirably contaminated by the material layers coated thereon; and, 
 repeating the steps of replacing the removable liner installed in the outer volume when the internal surfaces thereof become undesirably contaminated by the material layers coated thereon with a clean removable liner and thereafter cleaning the contaminated removable liner. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the step of removing the one or more material layers is performed by abrasive blasting. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of heating a reaction chamber housed inside the removable liner with heating elements disposed external to the removable liner. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of heating a reaction chamber housed inside the removable liner with heating elements disposed external to the outer chamber. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein surfaces of the removable liner is configured to make mating contact with surfaces of an outer wall assembly surrounding the outer chamber further comprising the step of conducting thermal energy from the outer wall assembly to the removable liner installed in the outer volume.