Patent ID: 7976897

Claim:
A thermal chemical vapor deposition method, comprising: exposing a substrate within a chamber to first and second deposition precursors effective to thermally chemical vapor deposit a material on the substrate, and exhausting unreacted first and second deposition precursors from the chamber through a vacuum pump via a first exhaust line comprising a filter; flowing a reactive gas to the material on the substrate, the reactive gas being reactive with the material; after flowing the reactive gas, flowing an inert purge gas through the chamber and through the vacuum pump, the flowing of the inert purge gas to the vacuum pump being through a second exhaust line not comprising the filter and comprising another pump through which the inert purge gas flows to the vacuum pump; and repeating the thermal chemical vapor depositing material, exhausting of unreacted first and second deposition precursors, flowing of the reactive gas, and flowing of the inert purge gas effective to deposit material of desired thickness on the substrate, at least some of the reactive gas flowing through the second exhaust line.