Ion Beam Anti-Contamination Shield

The new anti-contamination shield (ACS) obviates the need for in-process or interleave cleaning/conditioning of the etch source where both etch and deposition sources are being used in a given recipe resulting in a higher throughput. The anti-contamination shield (ACS) for Ionfab has two main functions:

• Prevents and/or reduces sputtered material from the Ionfab target depositing onto the 30cm etch source grids.
• Prevents and/or reduces potential contamination of the film depositing on the substrate from sputtering of extraneous material (i.e. from the chamber furniture) during the Ion Beam Deposition (IBD) process. It is notably designed to prevent material sputtered from the back wall/liner due to overspill of peripheral ion beam from the target, getting to the substrate.