Patent ID: 8227344

Claim:
A hybrid in-situ dry cleaning method, comprising: providing a substrate containing a metal-containing barrier layer, wherein the metal-containing barrier layer contains an oxidized surface layer; exposing the oxidized surface layer to a flow of a first process gas containing plasma-excited argon gas to activate the oxidized surface layer; applying substrate bias power during the exposing of the oxidized surface layer to the flow of the first process gas; and exposing the activated oxidized surface layer to a second process gas containing non-plasma-excited hydrogen gas and not the first process gas containing the plasma-excited argon gas, wherein the exposure to the first process gas, in addition to activating the oxidized surface layer, facilitates chemical reduction of the activated oxidized surface layer by the second process gas containing the hydrogen gas, wherein a thickness of the metal-containing barrier layer is not substantially changed by the exposing and applying steps.