Patent 9773665 was granted and assigned to Applied Materials on September, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods and apparatus for reducing particles generated in a process carried out in a process chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a process kit shield includes: a body having a surface facing a processing volume of a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process chamber, wherein the body is composed of aluminum oxide (Al2O3); and a silicon nitride layer on the surface of the body.