Claims
- 1. A method of removing residue from a substrate processing chamber, said method comprising steps of:
forming a plasma from an inert-source gas; and accelerating, into said plasma, a flow of a fluorine source gas at a predetermined acceleration, thereby creating a plurality of reactive radicals therefrom, with said plasma and said reactive radicals defining a cleaning mixture, with said cleaning mixture being disposed within said processing chamber.
- 2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said predetermined acceleration is no greater than 1.67 standard cubic centimeters per second2.
- 3. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein said fluorine source includes NF3 and said inert-source gas includes argon.
- 4. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein said forming step occurs before said flowing step and said plasma, formed during said forming step, consists entirely of dissociated argon atoms.
- 5. The method as recited in claim 1 further including a plasma generator in fluid communication with said processing chamber, wherein said forming step includes moving a flow of argon into said plasma generator at a first rate with said first rate and said steady rate established to maintain, within said first chamber, a predefined ratio of said inert-source gas to said fluorine source, with said predetermined ratio being greater than 1:1.
- 6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein said first rate is greater than 13.33 standard cubic centimeters per second and said flow rate is greater than 8.33 standard cubic centimeters per second.
- 7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein said predetermined ratio is approximately 3:2.
- 8. A device for removing residue from a substrate processing system, said system having first and second chambers in fluid communication, said device comprising:
means for flowing, into said first chamber, an inert-source gas at a first rate; means for forming a plasma from said inert-source gas; means for moving, into said plasma, a flow of a fluorine source gas at a second rate, thereby creating a plurality of reactive radicals therefrom; means for increasing both said first and second rates, with said plasma and said reactive radicals defining a cleaning mixture; and means for introducing said cleaning mixture into said second chamber.
- 9. The deposition device as recited in claim 8 wherein said inert-source gas includes argon.
- 10. The deposition device as recited in claim 9 wherein said fluorine source gas is selected from a group consisting of NF3, dilute F2, CF4, C2F6, C3F6, SF6, and ClF3.
- 11. A deposition device comprising:
a processing chamber; a supply of inert-source gas; a supply of fluorine source gas; a plasma source, in fluid communication with said supply of fluorine source gas and said supply of inert-source gas, to generate a plasma from said inert-source gas, with said processing chamber being in fluid communication with said plasma source; a pump system in fluid communication with said plasma source, said supply of inert-source gas, said supply of fluorine source gas and said processing chamber; a controller configured to regulate said pump system and said plasma source; a memory, coupled to said controller, comprising a computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for directing operation of said substrate processing system, said computer-readable program including a set of computer instructions to be operated on by said controller to regulate the introduction of said radicals from said plasma into said mixing manifold, said set of computer instructions including: a first subroutine to be operated on by said controller to regulate said pump system to introduce said inert-source gas into said plasma source at a first rate; a second subroutine to regulate said plasma source to form a plasma from said inert-source gas; and a third subroutine to accelerate a flow of said fluorine source gas into said plasma source, subsequent to said plasma being formed, at a predetermined acceleration to reach a steady flow rate.
- 12. The device as recited in claim 11 wherein said predetermined acceleration is no greater than 1.67 standard cubic centimeters per second2.
- 13. The device as recited in claim 12 wherein said fluorine source includes NF3 and said inert-source gas includes argon.
- 14. The device as recited in claim 11 said first and steady flow rates are established to maintain a predefined ratio of said inert-source gas to said fluorine source gas, with said predetermined ratio being greater than 1:1.
- 15. The device as recited in claim 11 wherein said first rate is greater than 13.33 standard cubic centimeters per second and said steady flow rate is greater than 8.33 standard cubic centimeters per second.
- 16. The device as recited in claim 11 wherein said predetermined ratio is approximately 3:2.
- 17. A method of removing residue from a substrate processing chamber, said method comprising:
providing a source of an inert gas; providing a source of a fluorine-containing gas; flowing said inert gas into a remote plasma chamber and forming a plasma within said chamber while isolating said remote plasma chamber from said source of said fluorine-containing gas; thereafter, flowing said fluorine-containing gas into said remote plasma chamber while maintaining said plasma within said chamber thereby creating a plurality of reactive species, wherein said fluorine-containing gas is initially flowed into said remote plasma chamber at a first flow rate that is increased over time to a second flow rate; and introducing said plurality of reactive species into said substrate processing chamber.
- 18. The method of claim 17 wherein a flow rate of said inert gas into said remote plasma chamber is held constant while said flow of said fluorine-containing gas is increased from said first flow rate to said second flow rate.
- 19. The method of claim 17 wherein flow of said fluorine-containing gas is increased at a constant rate from said first flow rate to said second flow rate.
- 20. The method of claim 18 wherein after said flow of said fluorine-containing source reaches said second flow rate, the flow rate of said inert gas is increased to a third flow rate and the flow of said fluorine-containing gas is further increased to a fourth flow rate.
- 21. The method of claim 20 wherein a ratio of said third flow rate to said fourth flow rate is greater than 1:1.
- 22. The method of claim 17 wherein said plasma is formed within said remote plasma chamber by a toroidal plasma source.
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/246,036, filed Feb. 4, 1999, entitled “Accelerated Plasma Clean,” having Shankar N. Chandran, Scott Hendrickson, Gwendolyn D. Jones, Shankar Venkataraman and Ellie Yieh listed as coinventors. The disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09246036 |
Feb 1999 |
US |
Child |
10115665 |
Apr 2002 |
US |