Method for pre-conditioning and stabilizing an etching chamber and method for cleaning an etching chamber

Abstract

A method for pre-conditioning and stabilizing an etching chamber and a method for cleaning an etching chamber are provided. The method for cleaning an etching chamber comprises providing an etching chamber; introducing a first gas comprising an inert gas into the etching chamber for a first period of time; and transporting a first wafer into the etching chamber after the first period of time, wherein the first wafer undergoes an etching process. The embodiment has one or a plurality of advantages of (1) reducing the pollutants and impurities in the chamber; (2) reducing wafer effect of head pieces; (3) improving the critical size of the wafer; (4) minimizing the damage due to the long-term use of chamber; (5) reducing the average time of cleaning; (6) lowering the cost of technical processing of wafer; and (7) increasing the quantity of the wafer that can be processed per hour.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a cleaning method for a process chamber, and in particular to a cleaning method for an etching chamber. Background technique [0002] The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have resulted in successive generations of IC production, each with smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have also increased the complexity of the manufacturing IC process, so the IC process also needs to have the same progress in order to achieve a more advanced integrated circuit IC process. In the course of IC innovation, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased, while geometric size (i.e., the smallest element or line that can be created in a process) has also increased. Small. These downscaling processes typically increase product performance and pro...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, traditional cleaning methods can still cause unwanted results, especially when dealing with contaminated process chambers

For example, when processing individual wafer lots, existing cleaning methods result in first wafer effects and poor wafer-to-wafer CDV values ​​within a wafer lot

Therefore, each wafer lot needs to include some dummy wafers for processing so that all real wafers can reflect the same critical dimensions and properties during the process, resulting in an increase in manufacturing costs and time

Furthermore, from wafer lot to wafer lot, existing cleaning methods require longer cleaning times, resulting in an increase in the average time required to clean wafer lots and increased damage to exposed process chambers

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