Deposition system and method
View Patent ↗A deposition system is provided capable of cleaning itself by removing a target material deposited on a surface of a collimator. The deposition system in accordance with the present disclosure includes a substrate process chamber. The deposition includes a substrate pedestal in the substrate process chamber, the substrate pedestal configured to support a substrate, a target enclosing the substrate process chamber, and a collimator having a plurality of hollow structures disposed between the target and the substrate, a vibration generating unit, and cleaning gas outlet.
1. A method of depositing a material from a target onto a substrate in a substrate process chamber, comprising:
determining a condition of a substrate process chamber;
placing the substrate process chamber in a chamber purging mode based on the condition of the substrate process chamber;
applying vibration to a collimator in the substrate process chamber by applying the vibration to the collimator with one or more vibration generation units embedded within the collimator; and
applying scrubbing gas to the collimator by introducing the scrubbing gas through one or more microchannels embedded within the collimator.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more microchannels embedded within the collimator are along inner sides of one or more openings passing through the collimator.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining the condition of the substrate process chamber includes monitoring at least one of power on time of the substrate process chamber, plasma on time of the substrate process chamber, wafer counts from a last cleaning of the collimator, or lifetime of the collimator.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the scrubbing gas further includes controlling an amount of the scrubbing gas released from one or more scrubbing outlets of the one or more microchannels with a controller and based on at least one artificial intelligence method.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the vibration to the collimator in the substrate process chamber further includes controlling the one or more vibration generation units applied to the collimator in the substrate process chamber with a controller and based on at least one artificial intelligence method.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
applying the scrubbing gas to the collimator further includes controlling an amount of the scrubbing gas released from one or more scrubbing gas outlets of the one or more microchannels with a controller and based on at least one artificial intelligence method, and
applying the vibration to the collimator in the substrate process chamber further includes controlling the one or more vibration units with the controller and based on at least one artificial intelligence method.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition of the substrate process chamber includes particle performance of the substrate process chamber.
8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining a health status based on the particle performance of the substrate process chamber, the health status including a non-healthy status and a healthy status.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising, transmitting one or more control signals output by a controller, wherein transmitting the one or more control signals output by the controller includes:
a scrubbing gas control signal to initiate a process to apply the scrubbing gas to the collimator; and
a vibration control signal to initiate a process to apply the vibration to the collimator in the substrate process chamber.
10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising, transmitting one or more control signals output by a controller, wherein the transmitting the one or more control signals output by the controller includes at least one of:
a scrubbing gas control signal to initiate a process to apply the scrubbing gas to the collimator; or
a vibration control signal to initiate a process to apply the vibration to the collimator in the substrate process chamber.
11. A method, comprising:
determining a condition of a substrate process chamber;
based on the condition of the substrate process chamber, positioning a substrate pedestal in a cleaning position and placing the substrate process chamber in a chamber purging mode;
after positioning the substrate pedestal in the cleaning position and placing the substrate process chamber in the chamber purging mode, applying vibration to a collimator within the substrate process chamber by activating one or more vibration generation units embedded within the collimator to vibrate the collimator; and
after positioning the substrate pedestal in the cleaning position and placing the substrate process chamber in the chamber purging mode, applying a scrubbing gas to the collimator within the substrate process chamber by passing a scrubbing gas through one or more microchannels embedded within the collimator to introduce the scrubbing gas into one or more openings.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, when a substrate is present on the substrate pedestal, removing the substrate from the substrate pedestal.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, after removing the substrate previously present on the substrate pedestal, positioning a shutter disk on the substrate pedestal.
14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising positioning a shutter disk on the substrate pedestal.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more scrubbing gas microchannels embedded within the collimator further includes one or more scrubbing gas outlets at and along one or more inner sides of one or more openings that pass through the collimator, and the scrubbing gas is introduced into the one or more openings by being ejected from the one or more scrubbing gas outlets.
16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining the condition of the substrate process chamber includes monitoring at least one of power on time of the substrate process chamber, plasma on time of the substrate process chamber, wafer counts from a last cleaning of the collimator, or lifetime of the collimator.
17. A method, comprising:
determining a condition of a substrate process chamber;
placing the substrate process chamber in a chamber purging mode based on the condition of the substrate process chamber;
applying vibration to a collimator in the substrate process chamber by activating one or more vibration generating units embedded within the collimator; and
introducing a scrubbing gas into one or more openings of the collimator through one or more scrubbing gas outlets embedded within the collimator and in fluid communication with the one or more openings of the collimator and in fluid communication with one or more microchannels embedded within the collimator.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein applying the vibration to the collimator occurs before introducing the scrubbing gas.
19. The method of claim 17 , wherein applying the vibration to the collimator occurs concurrently with introducing the scrubbing gas.
20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the one or more vibration generation units are one or more ultrasonic vibration generation units.