Lam Research Corporation

Benny Wu

Keith William Gaff

Eric A Pape

Jorge Luque

Changyou Jing

Dmitry Opaits

Oleksandr Mikhnenko

Slobodan Mitrovic

Systems and methods of the disclosure perform in situ sensing and real time compensation of various non-uniformities in substrate processing systems. A plasma non-uniformity is sensed by determining a temperature distribution across a matrix of a plurality of micro-heaters disposed in the substrate support. Alternatively, the plasma non-uniformity is sensed by determining heat flux through the substrate support using the matrix heaters and one or more heaters used to heat one or more zones of the substrate support. The plasma non-uniformity is compensated by adjusting one or more parameters such as power supplied to the matrix heaters, RF power supplied to generate plasma, chemistry and/or flow rate of gas or gases used to generate plasma, settings of thermal control units or chillers, and so on. Additionally, non-uniformities inherent in the substrate support are sensed using the zone and matrix heaters and are compensated by adjusting the one or more parameters.

In situ real-time sensing and compensation of non-uniformities in substrate processing systems

A semiconductor substrate support for supporting a semiconductor substrate in a plasma processing chamber includes a multi-plane heater such as a heater array comprising thermal control elements operable to tune a spatial temperature profile on the semiconductor substrate. The multi-plane heater includes at least one pair of vertically offset heating elements connected in series or parallel to control heating output in a heating zone on the substrate support. The thermal control elements can be powered by two or more power supply lines and two or more power return lines wherein each power supply line is connected to at least two of the heater zones and each power return line is connected to at least two of the heater zones.

Multi-plane heater for semiconductor substrate support

A system for controlling a temperature of a wafer processing substrate includes memory that stores first data indicative of first temperature responses of at least one first thermal control element. The first data corresponds to the first temperature responses as observed when a first control parameter of the at least one first thermal control element is maintained at a first predetermined first value. A first controller receives a setpoint temperature for the wafer processing substrate and maintains the first control parameter of the at least one first thermal control element at a second value based on the received setpoint temperature. A second controller retrieves the first data from the memory, calculates second data indicative of temperature non-uniformities associated with the wafer processing substrate based on the first data and the second value, and controls a plurality of second thermal control elements based on the calculated second data.

Auto-correction of electrostatic chuck temperature non-uniformity

A partial unclamping detection system is provided and includes a light emission circuit, a spectrometer, and a system controller. The light emission circuit is configured to emit light at an area of a substrate while the substrate is electrostatically clamped to an electrostatic chuck of a substrate processing system. The spectrometer is configured to detect light reflected off the substrate and generate a first output signal based on the detected light. The system controller is configured to: detect changes in the first output signal; detect changes in a flow rate of a gas supplied to a backside of the substrate; and based on both the changes in the first output signal and the changes in the flow rate, determine whether a partial unclamping event of the substrate has occurred.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Benny Wu