Applied Materials, Inc.

Alex Ko

Donald J Olgado

Yeuk-Fai Edwin Mok

Joe Stevens

The present invention provides an apparatus for etching a substrate, comprising: a container; a substrate support disposed in the container; a rotation actuator attached to the substrate support; and a fluid delivery assembly disposed in the container to deliver an etchant to a peripheral portion of a substrate disposed on the substrate support. Preferably, the substrate support comprises a vacuum chuck and the fluid delivery assembly comprises one or more nozzles. The invention also provide a method for etching a substrate, comprising: rotating a substrate positioned on a rotatable substrate support; and delivering an etchant to a peripheral portion of the substrate. Preferably, the substrate is rotated at between about 100 rpm and about 1000 rpm, and the etchant is delivered in a direction that is substantially tangent to the peripheral portion of the substrate at an incident angle between about 0 degrees and about 45 degrees from a surface of substrate.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Alex Ko