Photon induced cleaning of a reaction chamber

• Main Author: DICTUSIES
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 18.02.2009
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; CHEMISTRY; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATIONOR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY IONIMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS; ELECTRICITY; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION INGENERAL; METALLURGY; MULTI-STEP PROCESSES FOR SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLICMATERIAL INVOLVING AT LEAST ONE PROCESS PROVIDED FOR IN CLASSC23 AND AT LEAST ONEPROCESS COVERED BY SUBCLASS C21D OR C22F OR CLASS C25; NON-MECHANICAL REMOVAL OF METALLIC MATERIAL FROM SURFACE; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THESURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION

The present invention provides a method for in-situ cleaning of walls (14) of a reaction chamber (12), e.g. reactive ion etching chamber, to remove contamination (13), e.g. copper comprising contamination from the walls (14). The method comprises converting the contamination (13), e.g. copper comprising contamination into a halide compound (18), e.g. copper halide compound and exposing the halide compound (18), e.g. copper halide compound to a photon comprising ambient, thereby initiating formation of volatile halide products (17), e.g. volatile copper halide products. The method furthermore comprises removing the volatile halide products (17), e.g. volatile copper halide products from the reaction chamber (12) to avoid saturation of the volatile halide products (17), e.g. volatile copper halide products in the reaction chamber (12) in order to avoid re-deposition of the volatile halide products (17), e.g. volatile copper halide products to the walls (14) of the reaction chamber (12).