Increasing equipment uptime through in situ moisture monitoring

摘要

In situ sensing of humidity monitors contamination from leaks, insufficient purging, or excessive moisture from wafers in a process chamber. A new in situ moisture sensor utilizing tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy was used to determinethe moisture impact on a TiSi{sub}2 formation process. The results reduce time spent on chamber purging after periodic maintenance and load-lock purge after wafer loading, significantly increasing overall equipment effectiveness of the process tool. Thedata also suggest that a single-step TiSi{sub}2 formation may be possible at sufficiently low contamination levels.