Patent ID: 7850819

Claim:
A plasma reactor for plasma processing of substrates, the plasma reactor comprising: a substrate-processing reaction chamber having an operating position; a plasma source re-etching chamber having a re-etching position, the reaction chamber; a pair of equivalent/redundant plasma sources disposed on an alternating mechanism that moves the plasma sources relative to the chambers and is configured to alternately couple each plasma source to the substrate-processing reaction chamber in the operating position and to the plasma source re-etching chamber in the re-etching position so that the plasma source that is used in the substrate-processing reaction chamber is moved after use to for re-etching and the other plasma source is moved after re-etching in the plasma source re-etching chamber to the substrate-processing reaction chamber, the substrate processing chamber and the re-etching chamber each being provided with a respective gas-tight seal for sealing the chambers with the plasma sources in the operating position and the re-etching position; and an outer chamber having the reaction chamber, the re-etching chamber, and the plasma sources disposed therein.