Polished Ceramic Chamber Apertures for Faster RF Conditioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
The semiconductor industry faces challenges in achieving smooth internal surfaces of apertures in ceramic components used in processing chambers, which leads to on-wafer defects due to rough interior finishes, requiring extensive RF conditioning that increases processing time.
Innovation Solution
The use of an abrasive flow system with a polymer base and abrasive particles like silicon carbide, diamond, and boron nitride to polish the interior surfaces of ceramic articles, reducing surface roughness and mitigating defects caused by drilling and reaming processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If thermal oxidation and RF conditioning processes are used to remove particulates from rough internal apertures, then on-wafer defect performance is improved, but processing time increases significantly (more than 100 hours of RF conditioning)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing abrasive flow polishing of internal apertures before thermal oxidation and RF conditioning processes. The rough internal surfaces are polished using abrasive media flowing through the apertures, which removes particulates and creates smooth surfaces in advance, thereby reducing the subsequent RF conditioning time from over 100 hours to a fraction of that time while maintaining on-wafer defect performance.
2Ease of manufacture
If drilling and reaming processes are used to create apertures in ceramic components, then gas flow paths are formed, but rough internal surface finishes are created that serve as sources of on-wafer defects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary substance - abrasive media - that flows through the drilled and reamed apertures to polish the internal surfaces. The abrasive media, which may include abrasive particles suspended in a liquid or viscous carrier, acts as a mediator between the rough aperture surfaces and the desired smooth finish, enabling both ease of manufacture (retaining drilling/reaming) and manufacturing precision (achieving smooth surfaces).
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs hydraulic principles by flowing abrasive media through the apertures under pressure. The abrasive slurry or suspension is pumped through the ceramic component's internal apertures, using fluid dynamics to deliver the abrasive particles to the internal surfaces that need polishing, thereby achieving smooth finishes in complex geometries that would be inaccessible to conventional mechanical polishing tools.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method provides a smoother finish within apertures, reducing particulates and processing times, and enabling more robust fabrication of ceramic articles for semiconductor processing chambers.
Implementation Method 1
polishing the at least one aperture based on flowing an abrasive media through the at least one aperture of the article
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a plasma-resistant chamber component and a method for manufacturing the same. A plasma-resistant chamber component of a semiconductor processing chamber that generates a plasma environment includes a ceramic article having multiple polished apertures. A roughness of the multiple polished apertures is less than 32 μin.