Enhancement of remote plasma source clean for dielectric films

Abstract

Methods for cleaning semiconductor processing chambers used to process carbon-containing films, such as amorphous carbon films, barrier films comprising silicon and carbon, and low dielectric constant films including silicon, oxygen, and carbon are provided. The methods include using a remote plasma source to generate reactive species that clean interior surfaces of a processing chamber in the absence of RF power in the chamber. The reactive species are generated from an oxygen-containing gas, such as O2, and / or a halogen-containing gas, such as NF3. An oxygen-based ashing process may also be used to remove carbon deposits from the interior surfaces of the chamber before the chamber is exposed to the reactive species from the remote plasma source.

Description

technical field [0001] Embodiments of the invention generally relate to methods of cleaning processing chambers using a remote plasma source. Background technique [0002] The size of integrated circuit geometries has decreased dramatically since such devices were first introduced decades ago. Since then, integrated circuits have generally followed the two-year / half-size rule (commonly known as Moore's Law), which means that the number of devices on a chip doubles every two years. Today's fabrication facilities are routinely fabricating devices with 0.13 micron and even 0.1 micron feature sizes, and tomorrow's facilities will be fabricating devices with even smaller feature sizes. [0003] One that has contributed to the development of such small device sizes has been the development of patterned films that can be finely patterned and have the ability to transfer fine patterns through the underlying layers of the substrate. An example of such a patterned film is an amorpho...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

It has been found that the methods used to remove material from other dielectric layers, such as carbon-free silicon oxide layers, have had undesirable side effects and are not always sufficient to remove material from low-dielectric layers. Deposition of a constant film layer (which has a high carbon content) removes carbon

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