High temperature chemical vapor deposition chamber

US6364954B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Applied Materials, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Salvador P. Umotoy · Pittsburg, US
• Steve H. Chiao · Fremont, US
• Anh N. Nguyen · Milpitas, US
• Be Van Vo · Sunnyvale, US
• Joel M. Huston · San Jose, US
• James Jin-Long Chen · San Jose, US
• Lawrence Chung-Lai Lei · Milpitas, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 14, 1998
• Grant date: Apr 2, 2002
• Expiry date: Dec 14, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C23C16/5096
• WIPO field: Surface technology, coating
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

An apparatus for wafer processing, which comprises a chamber body and a heated liner which are thermally isolated from each other by isolating pins. During wafer processing, e.g., deposition of titanium nitride film by thermal reaction between titanium tetrachloride and ammonia, a wafer substrate is heated to a reaction temperature in the range of 600-700° C. by a heated support pedestal. The chamber liner and the interior chamber walls are maintained at a temperature between 150-250° C. to prevent deposition of undesirable by-products inside the chamber. This facilitates the chamber cleaning procedure, which can be performed using an in-situ chlorine-based process. The excellent thermal isolation between the heated liner and the chamber body allows the chamber exterior to be maintained at a safe operating temperature of 60-65° C. A heated exhaust assembly is also used in conjunction with the process chamber to remove exhaust gases and reaction by-products. External heaters are used to maintain the exhaust assembly at a temperature of about 150-200° C. to minimize undesirable deposits on the interior surfaces of the exhaust assembly.