Patent ID: 6855207

Claim:
An apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor substrate, said apparatus comprising: a closed mainframe having therein interior heating and cooling chambers and a semiconductor substrate having a sacrificial oxide layer fully covering a surface thereof with—contaminants over said oxide layer; at least one workpiece holder within said mainframe holding said semiconductor substrate; a transfer mechanism within said mainframe holding said workpiece holder in position; a door sealing said mainframe, said transfer mechanism being in contact with said door for moving said workpiece holder and said contaminated semiconductor substrate from said cooling chamber to said heating chamber, and vice versa; at least one heating element for heating said heating chamber to an elevated temperature such that said heating chamber is maintained at said elevated temperature; at least one input line for providing a chlorine-containing vapor into said heated chamber, said chlorine-containing vapor adapted to form volatile chloride byproducts with said contaminants over said sacrificial oxide layer within said mainframe without etching said underlying semiconductor substrate; at least one output line for removing said volatile chloride byproducts from said heating chamber; and at least one input line for providing a gas into said cooling chamber for cooling said cleaned semiconductor substrate, wherein said apparatus is for cleaning said semiconductor substrate surface by eliminating contaminants on said surface of said sacrificial oxide layer fully covering said semiconductor substrate.