Method for controlling the temperature of a gas distribution plate in a process reactor

Abstract

A plasma process reactor and method is disclosed that allows for greater control in varying the functional temperature range for enhancing semiconductor processing and reactor cleaning. The temperature is controlled by splitting the process gas flow from a single gas manifold that injects the process gas behind the gas distribution plate into two streams where the first stream goes behind the gas distribution plate and the second stream is injected directly into the chamber. By decreasing the fraction of flow that is injected behind the gas distribution plate, the temperature of the gas distribution plate can be increased. The increasing of the temperature of the gas distribution plate results in higher O2 plasma removal rates of deposited material from the gas distribution plate. Additionally, the higher plasma temperature aids other processes that only operate at elevated temperatures not possible in a fixed temperature reactor.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10 / 651,423, filed Aug. 29, 2003, pending, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10 / 127,273, filed Apr. 22, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,617,256, issued Sep. 9, 2003, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09 / 944,503, filed Aug. 30, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,816, issued May 14, 2002, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09 / 514,820, filed Feb. 28, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,133, issued Nov. 27, 2001, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09 / 026,246, filed Feb. 19, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,552, issued Oct. 17, 2000.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to process reactors used in fabricating semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to the control of the plasma temperature within the process reactor for improved reactor fabrication and maintenance operations. Plasma process reactors are used for...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] According to the present invention, a plasma process reactor is disclosed that allows for greater control in varying the functional temperature range for enhancing semiconductor processing and reactor cleaning. The temperature is controlled by splitting the process gas flow from a single gas manifold that injects the process gas behind the gas distribution plate into two streams where the first stream goes behind the gas distribution plate and the second stream is injected directly into the chamber. By decreasing the fraction of flow that is injected behind the gas distribution plate, the temperature of the gas distribution plate can be increased. The increasing of the chamber temperature results in higher O2 plasma cleaning rates of the deposits on the hotter surfaces. Additionally, where other processes would benefit from warmer gas distribution temperatures, the high gas flow allows higher temperatures to be achieved over the non-split flow of the prior art.

Problems solved by technology

This makes the plate temperature and gas temperature difficult to control as the process puts a heat load on the plate.

Unfortunately, the temperature of the gas distribution plate 28 cannot be easily modified in this arrangement.

The inability to control the temperature causes other problems during different stages of use of the process reactor.

One problem is that cleaning of the interior cannot be easily performed since the temperature is fixed as the gas distribution plate is thermally coupled to the reactor wall during cleaning.

It is helpful to run the cleaning process at much higher temperatures than during the etching process, but such an effective cleaning temperature cannot be achieved since the temperature is controlled by the constant gas flow at the gas distribution plate.

Another problem is that process modifications cannot be performed since only a set maximum temperature is possible and no higher temperature is available that would allow different processes to be performed that require hotter temperatures than those otherwise possible in a fixed-temperature reactor.

The inability to vary the temperature range also hinders the cleaning ability of the reactor.

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