Plasmaless dry contact cleaning method using interhalogen compounds

摘要

A method of removing an oxide layer from an article. The article may be located in a reaction chamber into which an interhalogen compound reactive with the oxide layer is introduced. A temperature of the reaction chamber may be modified so as to remove the oxide layer. The interhalogen compound may form volatile by-product gases upon reaction with the oxide layer. Unreacted interhalogen compound and volatile by-product gases may then be removed from the reaction chamber.