Patent ID: 7358175

Claim:
A serial thermal processing arrangement for treating a wafer of semiconductor material in a processor, comprising the steps of: loading said wafer into a chamber at an initial station of said processor, on a rotatable table at atmospheric pressure and purging said chamber with nitrogen gas; rotating said wafer to a first subsequent station, introducing formic acid vapor and nitrogen, heating said wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; rotating said wafer to a second subsequent station, introducing formic acid vapor and nitrogen, heating said wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; rotating said wafer to a third subsequent station, introducing a vacuum onto said wafer, heating said wafer in the absence of chemical treatment; rotating said wafer to a fourth subsequent station, introducing formic acid vapor and nitrogen, heating said wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; rotating said wafer to a fifth subsequent station, introducing nitrogen gas, and cooling said wafer at ambient atmospheric pressure; and rotating said wafer to a last or sixth subsequent station for unloading said wafer from said chamber.