Abstract: A method for treating a silicon plate, a so-called wafer, in a cold-wall reactor when using the so-called CVD-technique in order, among other things, to deposit substances on the silicon plate by introducing different gases into the reactor. The reactor is configured as a microwave cavity, and one treatment stage involves introducing microwave energy into the reactor from a microwave generator, thereby to heat the silicon plate to a desired temperature, which is measured in a known manner. According to one preferred embodiment, a suitable etching gas is introduced into the cold-wall reactor, and microwave energy is then introduced into the reactor at a power level such as to form a plasma in the reactor, to thereby back-etch a substrate or to clean the reactor from possible impurities contained therein.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing integrated circuits in which conductors and gate structures are built-up on a substrate plate, the conductors incorporating a layer of polycrystalline silicon and the gate structures including a gate electrode of polycrystalline silicon, where each of the gate structures is surrounded by doped source-and-drain-areas and where the gate electrode and the source-and-drain-areas respectively are metallized by depositing thereon a metal which reacts with the silicon from which the gate electrode and the source-and-drain-areas are comprised, so as to form a silicide layer. In accordance with the invention the gate electrode (3) is metallized in a first process stage. The source-and-drain-areas (18, 19) are metallized in a later process stage. Subsequent to metallizing the gate electrode in the first process stage, a protective layer (5) is applied to the metallized layer (4) of the gate electrode in a second process stage.