CLEAN RATE IMPROVEMENT BY PRESSURE CONTROLLED REMOTE PLASMA SOURCE
First Claim
1. A chamber cleaning method, comprising:
- flowing a cleaning gas into a remote plasma source;
igniting a plasma in the remote plasma source;
introducing the plasma to a processing chamber sized to receive a substrate having a surface area of about 50,000 square centimeters or greater, the chamber maintained at a pressure of about 10 Torr and above; and
cleaning the chamber with the plasma.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention generally comprises a method for cleaning a large area substrate processing chamber. As chamber volume increases, it has surprisingly been found that simply scaling up the cleaning conditions may not effectively clean silicon from the exposed chamber surfaces. Undesired silicon deposits on exposed chamber surfaces may lead to contamination in solar panel formation. Increasing the pressure of the chamber to about 10 Torr or greater while maintaining the chamber at a temperature between about 150 degrees Celsius and 250 degrees Celsius increases plasma cleaning effectiveness such that silicon deposits are removed from the chamber. The combination of high pressure and low temperature may reduce substrate contamination without sacrificing substrate throughput in solar panel fabrication.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A chamber cleaning method, comprising:
-
flowing a cleaning gas into a remote plasma source; igniting a plasma in the remote plasma source; introducing the plasma to a processing chamber sized to receive a substrate having a surface area of about 50,000 square centimeters or greater, the chamber maintained at a pressure of about 10 Torr and above; and cleaning the chamber with the plasma. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A solar cell manufacturing method, comprising:
-
depositing a first silicon film over a first substrate in a first chamber, the substrate having a surface area of about 50,000 square centimeters or greater; removing the first substrate from the first chamber; cleaning the first chamber, the cleaning comprising plasma cleaning the first chamber with a cleaning gas at a pressure of about 10 Torr and above; introducing a second substrate to the first chamber; and depositing a second silicon film over the second substrate. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A silicon deposition chamber cleaning method, comprising:
-
introducing a cleaning gas plasma to the chamber, the chamber having a substrate receiving surface adapted to receive a substrate having an area of about 50,000 cm2 or greater and maintained at a pressure of about 10 Torr or greater, the plasma comprising fluorine radicals; and reacting the fluorine radicals with silicon deposited on the chamber to remove the silicon. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
Specification