[labnetwork] Best practices for chamber cleaning RIE/ICP/DRIE PPE

[Emma Anquillare]

Hi Michael,

You asked about manual chamber cleans of ICPs- sorry for the delayed response. If you look up labnetwork's post history there is a lengthy thread I initiated about predicting what you might encounter in a chamber after a process and how to clean accordingly, and  a few people chimed in with their standard cleaning PPE.


Here, we use eye protection, at minimum double gloves and ideally longer, acid-strength gloves, (especially if someone has been running H processes) and a fit-tested respirator. (You can give EHS a list of materials allowed in the tool and they may have suggestions on the type of filter to use, though many things react and breakdown eventually so it can be hard to predict exact products. The more materials the filter covers, the better). You also want to make sure that if anyone was running a toxic or hazardous gas process the tool has been running and idly pumping down at least ~20 minutes after that process is finished before venting to avoid any risk of leftover gas in the chamber, even on top of the two purge cycles the software does. We also try to do cleanings off-hours when we know the cleanroom won't be highly populated, though we don't close the area off.

Once the chamber is open we lay down foil  over the bottom region to prevent any scotchbrite sponge bits from falling into the lower chamber and scrub out the upper metal (NOT CERAMIC) cylinder portion with isopropanol, scotchbrite pads, and cleanroom wipes, being sure to never touch anything ceramic or above the metal rim.  In one tool we also remove the tin foil, manually raise the wafer clamp and wipe underneath and on top of it a bit along with the  lower walls, checking to make sure no sponge pieces remain when done.  In the other more sensitive tool with a gas ring we don't do this. Our more sensitive tool also is cleaned out by more fabric-like alpha wipes instead of TX beta. All waste gets crumpled up in tin foil and put in our hazardous chemical waste bins. Also note the chamber will be hot to the touch- the isopropanol should evaporate quickly after scrubbing but be mindful of where you leave the bottle.

Once we are done and close the chamber, we let it pump down when it's at base pressure for at least 30-40 minutes before doing a leak up rate test. The tool has to have a leak up rate of 0.4 mtorr/minute or less after ten minutes of leak testing  to be put back online for users. (If it fails, just let it sit under vacuum longer.), Finally, we run a lengthy (hour and thirty minute, I think) plasma cleaning recipe on the tool.

Hope this helps,
Emma

_____________________________________________
Emma Anquillare, PhD
Research Scientist
ASRC Nanofabrication Facility
City University of New York

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From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> on behalf of mtkhbeis at gmail.com <mtkhbeis at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2024 11:45 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: [labnetwork] Best practices for chamber cleaning RIE/ICP/DRIE PPE


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Dear Lab Network,

Can you please share best practices, or better yet, SOPs for chamber cleans and related PPE (if any). Mostly interested in standard RIE/ICP chemistries (eg fluorine, fluorocarbons, etc), but also if you can differentiate if there are any protocol changes for toxics (Cl2, BCl3, HBr, VHF) I’d greatly appreciate it.

Regards,

Dr. Michael Khbeis
(C) 443.254.5192<tel:443.254.5192>
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