| abstract |
A method of operating a substrate processing chamber. In one embodiment the method includes processing one or more substrates in the substrate processing chamber and subsequently cleaning the chamber using a dry cleaning process. This substrate processing and dry cleaning sequence is then repeated multiple times before chamber is further cleaned by flowing a cleaning gas into the chamber and forming a plasma within the chamber from the cleaning gas in an extended cleaning process. During the extended cleaning process the plasma is maintained within the chamber for a total of at least 5 minutes before the chamber is reused to process a substrate. |