(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,350,697 Bi
Richardson et al. (45) Date of Patent: Feb. 26,2002
(21) Appl. No.: 09/469,286
(22) Filed: Dec. 22, 1999
(51) Int. CI.7 H01L 21/302
(52) U.S. CI 438/710; 438/725; 134/1.1
(58) Field of Search 438/695, 696,
438/706, 710, 733, 720, 725; 134/1.1, 21,
22
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FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
EP 0648858 A 4/1995
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* cited by examiner
Primary Examiner—Benjamin L. Utech
Assistant Examiner—Kin-Chan Chen
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Burns, Doane, Swecker &
Mathis, LLP
(57) ABSTRACT
A method for cleaning and conditioning interior surfaces of a plasma chamber in which substrates such as silicon wafers are processed. The method includes cleaning the chamber such as by a wet clean or in-situ plasma clean, introducing a conditioning gas into the chamber, energizing the conditioning gas into a plasma state, depositing a polymer coating on the interior surfaces and processing a substrate. The conditioning step can be performed without a substrate such as a wafer in the chamber and the processing step can be carried out without running conditioning wafers through the chamber prior to processing production wafers. In the case of a plasma chamber used for etching aluminum, the conditioning gas can include a fluorine-containing gas, a carbon-containing gas and a chlorine-containing gas.
21 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets
