Methods and apparatus reduce defects in substrates processed in a physical vapor (PVD) chamber. In some embodiments, a method for cleaning a process kit disposed in an inner volume of a process chamber includes positioning a non-sputtering shutter disk on a substrate support of the PVD chamber; energizing an oxygen-containing cleaning gas disposed in the inner volume of the PVD chamber to create a plasma reactive with carbon-based materials; and heating the process kit having a carbon-based material adhered thereto while exposed to the plasma to remove at least a portion of the carbon-based material adhered to the process kit.

A sputtering apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus performing deposition on a substrate to be processed using a sputtering method and includes a vacuum chamber, a target provided on a surface of a cathode provided in the vacuum chamber, a substrate holder provided in the vacuum chamber to face the target, and a swing unit that causes the substrate holder to be swingable with respect to the target. A swing region of the substrate to be processed in the substrate holder is set to be smaller than an erosion region of the target.

An adapter for a deposition chamber includes an adapter body extending longitudinally about a central axis between an upper side and lower side opposite the upper side. The adapter body has a central opening about the central axis. The adapter body has a radially outer portion having a connection surface on the lower side and a radially inner portion having a coolant channel and a stepped surface on the lower side. At least a portion of the coolant channel is spaced radially inwardly from a radially inner end of the connection surface. At least the portion of the coolant channel is disposed longitudinally below the connection surface between the connection surface and the stepped surface.

Physical vapor deposition methods for reducing the particulates deposited on the substrate are disclosed. The pressure during sputtering can be increased to cause agglomeration of the particulates formed in the plasma. The agglomerated particulates can be moved to an outer portion of the process chamber prior to extinguishing the plasma so that the agglomerates fall harmlessly outside of the diameter of the substrate.

Embodiments of process shield for use in process chambers are provided herein. In some embodiments, a process shield for use in a process chamber includes: an annular body having an upper portion and a lower portion extending downward and radially inward from the upper portion, wherein the upper portion includes a plurality of annular trenches on an upper surface thereof and having a plurality of slots disposed therebetween to fluidly couple the plurality of annular trenches, wherein one or more inlets extend from an outer surface of the annular body to an outermost trench of the plurality of annular trenches.

The present disclosure provides a thin-film-deposition equipment with double-layer shielding device, which includes a reaction chamber, a carrier and a double-layer shielding device. The double-layer shielding device includes a first-shield member, a second-shield member, a first-guard plate, a second-guard plate and a driver. The first-guard plate is disposed on the first-shield member, the second-guard plate is disposed on the second-shield member. The driver interconnects the two shield members for driving and swinging the two shield members to move in opposite directions. During a cleaning process, the driver swings the two shield members toward each other into a shielding state for covering the carrier, the two guard plates thereon also approach each other to cover the shield members, such that to effectively prevent polluting the carrier during the process of cleaning the thin-film-deposition equipment.

The present disclosure is a substrate-processing chamber with a shielding mechanism, which includes a reaction chamber, a substrate carrier, a storage chamber and a shielding mechanism. The reaction chamber is connected to the storage chamber, the substrate carrier is within the reaction chamber. The shielding mechanism includes at least one guide unit, at least one connecting seat, a shield and at least one drive arm. The drive arm is connected to the shield for driving the shield to move between the storage chamber and the reaction chamber. During a deposition process, the drive arm drives the shield to move into the storage space. During a cleaning process, the drive arm moves the shield to move into the reaction chamber for prevent pollution to the substrate carrier.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a processing chamber for processing a substrate comprises a sputtering target, a chamber wall at least partially defining an inner volume within the processing chamber and connected to ground, a power source comprising an RF power source, a process kit surrounding the sputtering target and a substrate support, an auto capacitor tuner (ACT) connected to ground and the sputtering target, and a controller configured to energize the cleaning gas disposed in the inner volume of the processing chamber to create the plasma and tune the sputtering target using the ACT to maintain a predetermined potential difference between the plasma in the inner volume and the process kit during the etch process to remove sputtering material from the process kit, wherein the predetermined potential difference is based on a resonant point of the ACT.

The invention relates to a filter for filtering particles from a plasma plume. The filter includes a housing with two pass-through openings arranged in the housing wall and forming a pass-through channel for passing at least part of the plasma plume through the housing, which pass-through channel extends from one side of the housing to an opposite side of the housing, at least one primary blade arranged at a distance from and rotatable around a rotation axis, which rotation axis is parallel and spaced apart from the center line of the pass-through channel, with the path of the at least one primary blade intersecting with the pass-through channel and with the at least one primary blade having a contact surface for contact with the plasma plume, which contact surface is facing in the direction of the rotation direction, and a drain channel connecting to a drain opening arranged in the housing wall. A line extending perpendicular from both the center line of the pass-through channel and a radial line extending from the rotation axis through the center line of the pass-through channel and through the path of the at least one primary blade, extends through the drain opening.

Methods and apparatus for passivating a target are provided herein. For example, a method includes a) supplying an oxidizing gas into an inner volume of the process chamber; b) igniting the oxidizing gas to form a plasma and oxidize at least one of a target or target material deposited on a process kit disposed in the inner volume of the process chamber; and c) performing a cycle purge comprising: c1) providing air into the process chamber to react with the at least one of the target or target material deposited on the process kit; c2) maintaining a predetermined pressure for a predetermined time within the process chamber to generate a toxic by-product caused by the air reacting with the at least one of the target or target material deposited on the process kit; and c3) exhausting the process chamber to remove the toxic by-product.