Application of aluminium-alloy ultrahigh vacuum system to semiconductor device fabrication processes

The aluminium-alloy ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) system has been shown to possess several excellent vacuum properties, such as an extremely low outgassing rate and an extremely short pumpdown time to reach the UHV region. It has, therefore, a considerable potential as a UHV system for next-generation semiconductor processes. For this application, however, proper surface treatments must be applied to the inner surface of the chamber, depending on the environment created by the process. A lathing method that utilizes alcohols as the lathing liquid has been developed for this purpose and found to be effective for processes that do not contain corrosive species. A silicon molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber has been constructed with this method, and its vacuum properties were tested. For processes that contain corrosive species, ceramic coating was tested and found effective.<>