Remote microwave technology for chamber clean to reduce PFC emissions

Applied Materials has developed a new chamber cleaning technology that has the potential to dramatically reduce PFC emissions from chamber cleaning on their D/spl times/Z/sup TM/ platform. The prototype product, known as /spl mu/Clean/sup TM/, is a remote microwave clean using NF/sub 3/ that can be retrofitted to a D/spl times/Z chamber. Recent tests of /spl mu/Clean technology conducted by Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. at Applied Materials have demonstrated the high utilization efficiencies of NF/sub 3/ (>90%) and reduced clean times. To confirm these results in an actual manufacturing environment, Motorola installed a prototype unit on an 200 mm Applied Materials D/spl times/Z plasma enhanced TEOS (PETEOS) chamber. Both quadrapole mass spectrometry (QMS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to quantify the major fluorinated gases in the process effluent. Process impact was determined by clean times, particle generation, and film thickness uniformity in the tool. The Applied Materials /spl mu/Clean technology has been shown to be effective for 200 mm D/spl times/Z TEOS chamber cleaning. Throughout a 500 wafer marathon, and during subsequent product processing beyond 13,000 wafers, no negative effect on manufacturing parameters has been noted. There is no evidence of particle generation and film properties are seemingly unaffected by the remote NF/sub 3/ clean. The Applied Materials /spl mu/Clean technology has been shown to be a viable alternative to the standard C/sub 2/F/sub 6/-NF/sub 3/ clean used in 200 mm D/spl times/Z TEOS chambers. PFC emissions are virtually eliminated without affecting the manufacturing process.