Metal treatment – Process of modifying or maintaining internal physical... – Processes of coating utilizing a reactive composition which...
Patent
1993-06-23
1995-04-18
Dean, Richard O.
Metal treatment
Process of modifying or maintaining internal physical...
Processes of coating utilizing a reactive composition which...
422 7, 148606, C23C 810
Patent
active
054074924
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a process for forming passivated film, and in particular relates to a process for forming passivated film which is capable of forming a passivated film which has an extremely small release of moisture, and which is capable of conducting the desorption of adhering moisture in an extremely short period of time.
BACKGROUND ART
In recent years, technologies which realize ultrahigh-grade vacuums, and technologies which create ultraclean low pressure atmospheres by means of the inflow of small amounts of specified gasses into a vacuum chamber, have become extremely important.
Such technologies are widely used in research into the characteristics of materials, the formation of various types of thin films, and the production of semiconductor devices, and therefore higher and higher degrees of vacuum are being realized; however, furthermore, the realization of a low pressure atmosphere in which contamination by impurity elements or impurity molecules is limited to an extreme degree has been greatly desired.
For example, to use the example of semiconductor devices, as a result of the increase in the degree of integration of integrated circuits, the dimensions of the unit elements have become smaller each year, and as semiconductor devices having dimensions such that the spaces between elements have gone from a level of 1 micrometer to a submicrometer level, and further to a level less than 0.5 micrometers, have come into common use, research and development in this area has been conducted on a large scale.
The production of this type of semiconductor device is accomplished by means of the repetition of a process in which a thin film is formed, and a process in which this thin film is subjected to etching in a specified circuit pattern. It is common for this type of process to be conducted in an ultrahigh vacuum state or in a low pressure atmosphere in which a specified gas is introduced, by means of placing a silicon wafer in a vacuum chamber. In such processes, if contamination with impurities is present, for example, problems will be caused in that the quality of the thin film will be reduced, and sufficient accuracy will not be obtainable in the very detailed treating. This the reason why an ultrahigh vacuum and an ultraclean low pressure atmosphere have been desired.
One of the greatest obstacles to the realization of an ultrahigh vacuum or an ultraclean low pressure atmosphere has, up until now, been gas which was discharged from the stainless steel surface which is widely used in the chamber and in the gas pipes. In particular, it has been determined that the greatest source of contamination is from moisture which adsorbs to the surface and desorbs in a vacuum or in a low pressure atmosphere.
FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between gas contamination and the total leak amount (the sum of the discharge gas amount from the surfaces of the pipe system and the interior of the reaction chamber and external leaks) of a system in a conventional device in which a gas pipe system and a reaction chamber are combined. The plurality of lines in the drawing indicate cases in which the flow amount of the gas is changed to various values as a parameter.
Semiconductor processing is exhibiting a tendency to reduce the gas flow amounts to a greater and greater extent in order to realize highly accurate processing; for example, it has now become common to use flow amounts of 10 cc/min or less.
Assuming a flow amount of 10 cc/min, if, as in presently widely used devices, a system total leakage on the order of 10.sup.-3-10.sup.-6 Torr.l/sec is present, the gas purity will be 10 ppm-1%, which is well outside highly clean processing ranges.
The present inventors have invented a ultrahigh-purity gas supply system which has succeeded in reducing the leakage amount from the exterior of the system to a level of less than 1.times.10.sup.-11 Torr.l/sec, which is below the detecting threshold of present detectors.
However, as a result of leaks from the interior of the syste
Mizokami Satoshi
Nakahara Yoshiyuki
Ohmi Tadahiro
Ohta Eiji
Sakanaka Takashi
Cassett Larry R.
Dean Richard O.
Osaka Sanso Kogyo Ltd.
Phipps Margery S.
Rosenblum David M.
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