Collection of unused precursors in ALD

• US 20050016453A1
• Filed: 04/23/2004
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Aixtron Inc. (Aixtron AG)
• Original Assignee: Aixtron Inc. (Aixtron AG)
• Inventors: Seidel, Thomas E., Doering, Kenneth, Gadgil, Prasad, Lee, Edward C.
• Application Number:
  US10/831,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20050016453A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 118/715
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/4412 Details relating to the exhausts, e.g. pumps, filters, scrubbers, particle traps
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45525 Atomic layer deposition [ALD]
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45544 characterized by the apparatus

Abstract

An ALD system includes an ALD reactor and a precursor trap coupled downstream of the ALD reactor via a valve assembly. The precursor trap is configured to collect unused chemical precursors after reactions in the ALD reactor.

Claims

1. An ALD system, comprising an ALD reactor and a precursor trap coupled downstream of said ALD reactor via a valve assembly and configured to collect unused chemical precursors after reactions in said ALD reactor.

2. The ALD system of claim 1, wherein the valve assembly comprises a pair of valves configured to be time-phase operated such that a first one of the pair of valves opens during periods of a first precursor exposure and its purge, during which time a second one of the pair of valves is closed, permitting unused portions of the first precursor to be directed to the precursor trap.

3. The ALD system of claim 2 wherein the first and second ones of the pair of valves are fast switching throttle valves.

4. The ALD system of claim 1, wherein the valve assembly is attached to effluent surface of said ALD reactor.

5. The ALD system of claim 1, wherein the valve assembly is actuated at a time later than initiation of a first precursor exposure time by a time interval substantially equal to a time for the first precursor to move between an upstream injecting valve and the downstream trap.

6. A method, comprising time phase operating a pair of valves coupled downstream from an ALD reactor such that a first one of the pair of valves opens during periods of exposure of a first precursor and its purge while at substantially the same time a second one of the pair of valve is closed, so as to selectively permit unused portions of the first precursor to be collected by a precursor trap downstream of the ALD reactor.

7. A method, comprising actuating a valve coupled downstream of an ALD reactor and upstream of a precursor trap at a time later than initiation of a first precursor exposure time by a time interval substantially equal to a residence time of the first precursor and its purge in the ALD reactor.