3392 results about "Gas blending" patented technology

A method for dry etching and chamber cleaning high dielectric constant materials is disclosed herein. In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process for cleaning a substance comprising a dielectric constant greater than the dielectric constant of silicon dioxide from at least a portion of a surface of a reactor comprising: introducing a first gas mixture comprising a boron-containing reactive agent into the reactor wherein the first gas mixture reacts with the substance contained therein to provide a volatile product and a boron-containing by-product; introducing a second gas mixture comprising a fluorine-containing reactive agent into the reactor wherein the second gas mixture reacts with the boron-containing by-product contained therein to form the volatile product; and removing the volatile product from the reactor.

This invention provides an apparatus and method for injecting gas within a plasma reactor and tailoring the distribution of an active species generated by the remote plasma source over the substrate or wafer. The distribution may be made more or less uniform, wafer-edge concentrated, or wafer-center concentrated. A contoured plate or profiler is provided for modifying the distribution. The profiler is an axially symmetric plate, having a narrow top end and a wider bottom end, shaped to redistribute the gas flow incident upon it. The profiler is situated below an input port within the plasma reactor chamber and above the wafer. The method for tailoring the distribution of the active species over the substrate includes predetermining the profiler diameter and adjusting the profiler height over the substrate. A coaxial injector tube, for the concurrent injection of activated and non-activated gas species, allows gases (or gas mixtures) to be delivered in an axially symmetric manner whereby one gas can be excited in a high density RF plasma, while the other gas can be prevented from excitation and / or dissociation caused by exposure to the plasma or heated surfaces in the source apparatus. The gas admixture that is not to be excited or dissociated prior to contact with the wafer surface is shielded from direct exposure to the RF field surrounding the plasma confinement tube. The tube walls are also shielded from the infrared energy emitted from the plasma. The profiler is used in conjunction with the coaxial injector tube for redistributing the excited gases emerging from the injector tube, while allowing the non-excited gases to pass through its center.

In one embodiment, a semiconductor substrate is placed into a process chamber. A gas mixture including a silicon-containing gas, a fluorine-containing gas, an inert gas, and an oxygen gas is introduced into the chamber at a pressure range of from about 30 mTorr to about 90 mTorr. During this time, deposition and etching processes are concurrently performed using a plasma to form a high-density plasma (HDP) insulating layer on the semiconductor substrate. A ratio of deposition to etching is from about 3:1 to about 10:1. A ratio of a flow rate of the fluorine-containing gas to a flow rate of the silicon-containing gas is less than about 0.9.

The present invention generally provides apparatus and methods for selectively removing various oxides on a semiconductor substrate. One embodiment of the invention provides a method for selectively removing an oxide on a substrate at a desired removal rate using an etching gas mixture. The etching gas mixture comprises a first gas and a second gas, and a ratio of the first gas and a second gas is determined by the desired removal rate.

The overall efficiency of a regenerative bed reverse flow reactor system is increased where the location of the exothermic reaction used for regeneration is suitably controlled. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling the combustion to improve the thermal efficiency of bed regeneration in a cyclic reaction / regeneration processes. The process for thermal regeneration of a regenerative reactor bed entails(a) supplying the first reactant through a first channel means in a first regenerative bed and supplying at least a second reactant through a second channel means in the first regenerative bed,(b) combining said first and second reactants by a gas mixing means situated at an exit of the first regenerative bed and reacting the combined gas to produce a heated reaction product,(c) passing the heated reaction product through a second regenerative bed thereby transferring heat from the reaction product to the second regenerative bed.

A chemical vapor deposition process is carried out in a reactor chamber with an ion shower grid that divides the chamber into an upper ion generation region and a lower process region, the ion shower grid having plural orifices oriented in a non-parallel direction relative to a surface plane of the ion shower grid. A workpiece is placed in the process region facing the ion shower grid, the workpiece having a workpiece surface generally facing the surface plane of the ion shower grid. A gas mixture is furnished comprising deposition precursor species into the ion generation region and the process region is evacuated at an evacuation rate sufficient to create a pressure drop across the ion shower grid from the ion generation region to the process region whereby the pressure in the ion generation region is at least several times the pressure in the process region. A layer of material of a desired thickness is deposited on the workpiece by: (a) applying plasma source power to generate a plasma of the deposition precursor species in the ion generation region, and (b) applying a grid potential to the ion shower grid to create a flux of ions from the plasma through the grid and into the process region.