Patent ID: 7524383

Claim:
A method of treating internal members of a processing system and treating substrates with supercritical fluid, comprising: without a substrate present in a processing chamber of the system for processing therein, filling the process chamber of the processing system with carbon dioxide in a generally supercritical state at or above a pressure of about 1070 Psi and at or above a temperature of about 31 degrees C, recirculating the carbon dioxide through the processing system in contact with internal members thereof that are composed substantially of stainless steel, injecting nitric acid into the recirculating carbon dioxide in the system to form a passivation composition, re-circulating the passivation composition through the processing system to expose internal members thereof to the passivation composition, then purging the processing system of the passivation composition by recirculating fresh carbon dioxide through the processing system, wherein the purging of the processing system includes recirculating the fluid therein for at least approximately 3 minutes, then rinsing the processing system with a carbon dioxide and de-ionized water composition by introducing de-ionized water to the carbon dioxide and recirculating the composition through the system for approximately 2 minutes, then after rinsing the processing system, further purging the processing system by recirculating fresh carbon dioxide through the processing system for approximately 3 additional minutes, then further rinsing the processing system by introducing isopropyl alcohol to the carbon dioxide and recirculating the carbon dioxide and isopropyl alcohol composition through the system for approximately 2 minutes, then further purging the system again by recirculating fresh carbon dioxide through the processing system for approximately 3 minutes; then loading a semiconductor wafer into the chamber of the processing system; filling the process chamber with carbon dioxide in a generally supercritical state at or above a pressure of about 1070 Psi and at or above a temperature of about 31 degrees C; and adding process chemistry that differs from the passivation composition to the carbon dioxide and recirculating the carbon dioxide and process chemistry through the processing system in contact with internal members and the semiconductor wafer and thereby treating a semiconductor wafer with a supercritical fluid composed of the carbon dioxide and the process chemistry.