Removal of particulate contamination in loadlocks

摘要

The invention teaches the removal of dust particles during semiconductor processing without the need to modify the processing chambers or to wait until they are not being used for their normal purposes. The dust removal operation is performed inside loadlocks instead the processing chambers. Dust removal, in a loadlock, is accomplished by first initiating a flow of gas over the wafer surface. Then a negative charge is induced at the surface for a period of time followed by the induction of a positive charge. This causes the charged particles to be repelled away from the surface, at which point they are swept away by the gas. To remove the electrically neutral dust particles, the induced surface charge is switched too rapidly for these particles to follow, so they are briefly repelled from the surface and then swept away by the gas.