Patent ID: 6992011

Claim:
A method for cleaning a surface in a semiconductor wafer processing chamber without imposing a RF bias to the wafer, the method comprising: placing a semiconductor wafer having a feature thereon onto a non-grounded susceptor surface in the chamber, the feature having a contaminant thereon, and the feature being at least one of a silicon contact or a metallization, providing a gas mixture comprising H 2 and an inert gas to the chamber; forming an inductively-coupled plasma in the gas mixture by energizing an ICP power source coupled to the chamber and maintaining a plasma-to-wafer bias potential at a level of 15 eV or less; and maintaining the plasma for a time sufficient to remove the contaminant from the feature, the method further comprising, prior to placing the semiconductor water having the feature thereon in the process chamber; etching a polysilicon layer on at least one semiconductor wafer in the chamber wherein a silicon residue contaminant is deposited on internal surfaces of the chamber, and thereafter removing the at least one wafer from the chamber; providing a gas mixture comprising H 2 and an inert gas to the chamber; forming an inductively-coupled plasma in the gas mixture by energizing an ICP power source coupled to the chamber and maintaining a plasma-to-surface bias potential at a level of 15 eV or less; and maintaining the plasma for a time sufficient to remove the silicon residue contaminant from the internal surfaces.