Method for cleaning a reactor using electron attachment

Abstract

A method for cleaning, and / or enhancing the cleaning of, a reactor is disclosed herein. In one aspect, there is provided a method comprising: providing the reactor wherein a surface of the reactor is coated with a substance; providing a first and second electrode in close proximity to the reactor wherein the first and second electrode reside within a target area; passing a gas mixture comprising a reactive gas into the target area; supplying energy to at least one of the first or the second electrodes to generate electrons within the target area wherein at least a portion of the electrons attach to at least a portion of the reactive gas thereby forming a negatively charged cleaning gas; contacting the substance with the negatively charged cleaning gas wherein the negatively charged cleaning gas reacts with the substance and forms a volatile product; and removing the volatile product from the reactor.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] In the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits (IC), opto-electronic devices, and microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS), multiple steps of thin film deposition are performed in order to construct several complete circuits (chips) and devices on monolithic substrate wafers. Each wafer is often deposited with a variety of thin films such as, but not limited to, conductor films, e.g., tungsten; semiconductor films, e.g., doped and undoped poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si), doped and undoped (intrinsic) amorphous silicon (a-Si), etc.; dielectric films, e.g., silicon dioxide (SiO2), undoped silicon glass (USG), boron doped silicon glass (BSG), phosphorus doped silicon glass (PSG), borophosphrosilicate glass (BPSG), silicon nitride (Si3N4), silicon oxynitride (SiON) etc.; low-k dielectric films, e.g., fluorine doped silicate glass (FSG), and carbon-doped silicon glass, such as “Black Diamond”.

[0002] In modern manufacturing, thin film depositi...