Patent ID: 7323231

Claim:
A method of depositing a layer onto a microfeature workpiece, comprising: (a) placing a microfeature workpiece in a vapor reaction chamber; (b) injecting a gas into a plasma zone in the vapor reaction chamber; (c) generating a plasma from the gas in the plasma zone that causes an electrically conductive material to be deposited on the microfeature workpiece and a window of the vapor reaction chamber at a deposition temperature and then remove the microfeature workpiece from the vapor reaction chamber; (d) transforming the electrically conductive material on the window into a substantially dielectric material after the microfeature workpiece is removed from the vapor reaction chamber using a process consisting of injecting a fluid containing at least oxygen into the vapor reaction chamber and maintaining the vapor reaction chamber at a maintenance temperature at least approximately equal to the deposition temperature; and repeating the steps of (a)-(d) with the transformed dielectric material remaining on the window.