Film forming method wherein a partial pressure of a reaction byproduct in a processing container is reduced temporarily

• US 5,503,875 A
• Filed: 03/17/1994
• Issued: 04/02/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
• Original Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo Electron Tohoku Ltd. (Tokyo Electron Limited)
• Inventors: Imai, Masayuki, Nishimura, Toshiharu
• Primary Examiner(s): Owens, Terry J.
• Application Number:
  US08/214,109
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• Field of Search: 427/248.1, 427/255.1, 427/255.2, 427/255.3
• US Class Current: 427/255.39
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/4412 Details relating to the exhausts, e.g. pumps, filters, scrubbers, particle traps
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/4584 the substrate being rotated

Abstract

A film is formed on a substrate by supplying a plurality of processing gases into a processing container and forming the film on the substrate from the processing gases while exhausting a portion of the gases out of the processing container. Before a partial pressure of a byproduct in the processing container produced through chemical reaction of the processing gases reaches an equilibrium state, the partial pressure of the byproduct in the processing container is temporarily reduced by temporarily suppressing or stopping the supply of at least one of the processing gases into the processing container and exhausting gas from the processing container.

Claims

1. A method for creating a film-formation processing atmosphere, comprising the steps of:

providing a film on a substrate in a processing container by supplying a plurality of processing gases into the processing container and forming the film from the processing gases on a surface of the substrate while exhausting a portion of the gases out of the processing container at all times; and

before a partial pressure of a byproduct in the processing container produced through a chemical reaction of the processing gases reaches an equilibrium state, performing a partial pressure reducing step which temporarily reduces the partial pressure of the byproduct in the processing container.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the partial pressure reducing step is intermittently performed until the film formation on the substrate is completed.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the partial pressure reducing step is performed by temporarily suppressing the supply of at least one of the processing gases into the processing container and exhausting gas from the processing container.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the suppression of the supply of at least one of the processing gases in the partial pressure reducing step includes stopping the supply of the at least one processing gas.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the supply of all the processing gases into the processing container is stopped temporarily, after the partial pressure reducing step.