Granted Patent B2

US 12,227,837 · App. 17/663,614 · Granted Feb 18, 2025

Inventors: Damodar Rajaram Shanbhag (Beaverton, OR); Guangbi Yuan (Beaverton, OR); Thadeous Bamford (Portland, OR); Curtis Warren Bailey (West Linn, OR); Tony Kaushal (Campbell, CA); Krishna Birru (Fremont, CA); William Schlosser (Tigard, OR); Bo Gong (Sherwood, OR); Huatan Qiu (Portland, OR); Fengyuan Lai (Sherwood, OR); Leonard Wai Fung Kho (San Francisco, CA); Anand Chandrashekar (Fremont, CA); Andrew H. Breninger (Hillsboro, OR); Chen-Hua Hsu (Sherwood, OR); Geoffrey Hohn (Portland, OR); Gang Liu (Fremont, CA); Rohit Khare (San Ramon, CA)

Assignee: Lam Research Corporation

C23C16/4404C23C16/401C23C16/4405C23C16/45519C23C16/45536C23C16/45565H01J37/3244H01J37/32862

Abstract

Claims (28)

1. A method of coating a chamber component, the method comprising:

(a) receiving the chamber component as a substrate in a first reaction chamber;

(b) reacting a first reactant with a second reactant in the first reaction chamber to form a protective coating on a surface of the chamber component;

(c) repeating (b) until the protective coating reaches a final thickness; and

(d) removing the chamber component from the first reaction chamber;

(e) installing the chamber component in a second reaction chamber; and

(f) exposing the second reaction chamber to a restoration plasma while the chamber component is installed therein to re-form the protective coating on the chamber component.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the protective coating comprises a metal oxide, a metal nitride, or a metal fluoride.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the metal in the metal oxide, metal nitride, or metal fluoride is a transition metal.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the protective coating comprises aluminum oxide, aluminum fluoride, or aluminum nitride.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the protective coating comprises yttrium oxide or yttrium fluoride.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising depositing a film on a semiconductor wafer in the second reaction chamber after installing the chamber component therein, wherein the film is deposited through atomic layer deposition or chemical vapor deposition.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising establishing an elevated temperature in the second reaction chamber while depositing the film on the semiconductor wafer, the elevated temperature being between about 40-200° C.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein either:

(a) the protective coating comprises a metal oxide and the restoration plasma comprises an oxidizing plasma,

(b) the protective coating comprises a metal nitride and the restoration plasma comprises nitrogen, or

(c) the protective coating comprises a metal fluoride and the restoration plasma comprises fluorine.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the restoration plasma further comprises a metal that is the same as a metal in the protective coating.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising after depositing the film on the semiconductor wafer in the second reaction chamber, removing the semiconductor wafer from the second reaction chamber, and exposing the second reaction chamber to a first plasma comprising oxygen, then exposing the second reaction chamber to a second plasma comprising nitrogen.

11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising cleaning the second reaction chamber by exposing the second reaction chamber to a fluorine-containing plasma, then removing fluorine from the second reaction chamber by exposing the second reaction chamber to a reducing plasma.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the protective coating forms without exposing the chamber component to plasma.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of chamber components are provided to the first reaction chamber simultaneously, the plurality of chamber components including the chamber component, such that the protective coating forms on the plurality of chamber components simultaneously.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of chamber components do not have a uniform size and/or shape, and, wherein the plurality of chamber components comprise a first chamber component and a second chamber component, further comprising installing the first and second chamber components in a second reaction chamber such that they are simultaneously present within the second reaction chamber.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the final thickness of the protective coating is between about 1 nm and 10 mm.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising masking a portion of the chamber component before (b) to prevent the protective coating from forming on the portion of the chamber component that is masked.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising positioning the chamber component on a substrate support within the first reaction chamber, such that one or more surfaces of the chamber component where the protective coating is desired are substantially exposed, and further comprising re-positioning the chamber component within the first reaction chamber from a first position to a second position, wherein the protective coating forms over a first set of surfaces of the chamber component when oriented in the first position, and forms over a second set of surfaces of the chamber component when oriented in the second position.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chamber component is a showerhead.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the showerhead comprises a first set of holes that extend through a thickness of the showerhead and a second set of holes that connect with one or more internal passages within the showerhead, wherein the protective coating conformally coats the first set of holes, the second set of holes, and the internal passages.

Continuity (4)

References Cited (400)

Cited By (2)

US 12,371,781 US 12,601,051