/Patent Tracker
SamsungPatent applicationChips & hardwareInterest 3/10

Samsung patents chip-making chamber with two different gas zones

Samsung describes a machine for making computer chips that holds multiple wafers in a sealed box. The box has two distinct sections with different heights: one for cleaning the wafers and a taller one for adding new layers of material. Gas nozzles are placed at specific heights to control how the material lands on the chips.

Why it mattersThis is a routine improvement to semiconductor manufacturing equipment that helps ensure layers of material are applied evenly to computer chips.

In the filing’s own words

A substrate processing apparatus includes: configured to support a plurality of substrates; a chamber sidewall surrounding at least a side surface of the substrate support; and an upper plate including a plurality of plate portions on the substrate support and spaced apart from the substrate support. The plurality of plate portions and the substrate support collectively at least partially define a plurality of process regions between the plurality of plate portions and the substrate support and a separation between at least two process regions of the plurality of process regions. The plurality of process regions include a pretreatment process region between the pretreatment process plate portion and the substrate support and having a first height, and a deposition process region between the deposition process plate portion and the substrate support and having a second height, greater than the first height.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method of processing substrates, the method comprising: preparing a substrate processing apparatus including a substrate support configured to support a plurality of substrates, a chamber sidewall surrounding at least a side surface of the substrate support, an upper plate disposed above the substrate support, and a plurality of process regions between the substrate support and the upper plate; loading the plurality of substrates onto the substrate support of the substrate processing apparatus; forming a material layer on each of the plurality of substrates while moving positions of the plurality of substrates in the substrate processing apparatus; and unloading the plurality of substrates, each having the material layer formed thereon, from the substrate processing apparatus, wherein the upper plate and the substrate support collectively at least partially define the plurality of process regions, wherein the upper plate includes a pretreatment process plate portion and a deposition process plate portion, wherein the upper plate and the substrate support collectively at least partially define the plurality of process regions to include a pretreatment process region between the pretreatment process plate portion and the substrate support, the pretreatment process region having a first height, and a deposition process region between the deposition process plate portion and the substrate support, the deposition process region having a second height greater than the first height, wherein the deposition process plate portion includes a first deposition process gas nozzle configured to inject a deposition process gas into the deposition process region, wherein the chamber sidewall includes a second deposition process gas nozzle configured to inject the deposition process gas toward an upper region of the deposition process region, and wherein the second deposition process gas nozzle is higher than a middle of the deposition process region between an upper end of the deposition process region and a lower end of the deposition process region, and is closer to the upper end of the deposition process region than the middle of the deposition process region.

Facts

Company
Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
Official title
SUBSTRATE PROCESSING METHOD AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE USING THE SAME
Publication number
US20260293542A1
Application number
19690993
Filed
May 28, 2026
Published
Sep 24, 2026
Inventors
4
Claims
20

Classified under

H10P 14/3406 Electricity & electronicsC23C 16/0209 Chemistry & metalsC23C 16/0272 Chemistry & metalsC23C 16/26 Chemistry & metalsC23C 16/45563 Chemistry & metalsC23C 16/4583 Chemistry & metals

More from Samsung in Chips & hardware

Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.