US Patent Application 18131997. OPTICAL DEVICE IMPROVEMENT simplified abstract

OPTICAL DEVICE IMPROVEMENT

Organization Name

Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor(s)

Yue Chen of Sunnyvale CA (US)

Jinyu Lu of Santa Clara CA (US)

Yongmei Chen of San Jose CA (US)

Jinxin Fu of Fremont CA (US)

Zihao Yang of Santa Clara CA (US)

Mingwei Zhu of San Jose CA (US)

Takashi Kuratomi of San Jose CA (US)

Rami Hourani of Santa Clara CA (US)

Ludovic Godet of Sunnyvale CA (US)

Qun Jing of Santa Clara CA (US)

Jingyi Yang of Santa Clara CA (US)

David Masayuki Ishikawa of Mountain View CA (US)

OPTICAL DEVICE IMPROVEMENT - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18131997 titled 'OPTICAL DEVICE IMPROVEMENT

Simplified Explanation

The patent application describes a method for processing an optical device using plasma technology.

• The method involves positioning the optical device on a substrate support within a process chamber.
• The optical device consists of an optical device substrate and multiple optical device structures.
• Each optical device structure is composed of a bulk region made of silicon carbide and one or more surface regions made of silicon oxycarbide.
• Process gases are introduced into the process chamber, and a plasma is generated within the chamber for a specific duration while the optical device is on the substrate support.
• After the first time period, the plasma is stopped.
• The plasma treatment reduces the carbon content of the surface regions of each optical device structure by at least 50%.

Original Abstract Submitted

A method of processing an optical device is provided, including: positioning an optical device on a substrate support in an interior volume of a process chamber, the optical device including an optical device substrate and a plurality of optical device structures formed over the optical device substrate, each optical device structure including a bulk region formed of silicon carbide and one or more surface regions formed of silicon oxycarbide. The method further includes providing one or more process gases to the interior volume of the process chamber, and generating a plasma of the one or more process gases in the interior volume for a first time period when the optical device is on the substrate support, and stopping the plasma after the first time period. A carbon content of the one or more surface regions of each optical device structure is reduced by at least 50% by the plasma.