Patent ID: 8329593

Claim:
A method of processing in a reactor chamber a wafer having a polymer layer on a backside of the wafer, comprising: placing the backside of the wafer on a support surface provided in the chamber that leaves exposed a peripheral annulus of the backside of the wafer while covering the remaining portion of said backside of the wafer with said support surface; providing a cylindrical side wall and an arcuate side gas injection nozzle extending into the chamber through said cylindrical side wall, and having an arcuate gas injection zone distributed along an arc adjacent an edge of the wafer; raising the support surface and wafer toward a ceiling gas distribution plate of the chamber and past said arcuate side gas injection nozzle to confine the wafer front side in a gap between said wafer front side and a ceiling of the chamber; generating plasma by-products in a remote plasma source from a process gas comprising an oxygen-containing species and introducing the plasma by-products into the reactor chamber through the arcuate gas injection zone of the arcuate side gas injection nozzle to expose, to the plasma by-products, a section of the backside of the wafer subtended by said arc, to remove the polymer from the wafer backside; and blocking the plasma by-products from entering the gap between the wafer front side and the ceiling by introducing a purge gas through a gas distribution plate at the ceiling facing the wafer front side; wherein the wafer front side has photoresist deposited thereon, the method further comprising: lowering the support surface and wafer away from the ceiling gas distribution plate to a position below the arcuate side nozzle; halting flow of the purge gas through the ceiling gas distribution plate; introducing the plasma by-products into the reactor chamber through the arcuate side gas injection nozzle to expose, to the plasma by-products, a section of the front side of the wafer subtended by said arc angle, to remove the photoresist from the wafer front side; and continuously rotating the wafer.