Lam Research Corporation

Brian Joseph Williams

Michael John Janicki

James Forest Lee

Fayaz A Shaikh

Nick Ray Linebarger, Jr

Matthew Mudrow

Adriana Vintila

Adrien Lavoie

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Pulkit Agarwal

Paul Konkola

Michael G R Smith

Ravi Kumar

Michael Philip Roberts

Xin Yin

Various carrier ring designs and configurations to control an amount of deposition at a wafer's front side and bevel edge are provided. The carrier ring designs can control the amount of deposition at various locations of the wafer while deposition is performed on the wafer's back side, with no deposition desired on the front side of the wafer. These locations include front side, edge, and back side of bevel; and front and back side of the wafer. Edge profiles of the carrier rings are designed to control flow of process gases, flow of front side purge gas, and plasma effects. In some designs, through holes are added to the carrier rings to control gas flows. The edge profiles and added features can reduce or eliminate deposition at the wafer's front side and bevel edge.

Carrier ring designs for controlling deposition on wafer bevel/edge

A plasma processing chamber for depositing a film on an underside surface of a wafer, includes a showerhead pedestal. The showerhead pedestal includes a first zone and a second zone. The first zone is configured for depositing a first film to the underside surface of the wafer and the second zone is configured for depositing a second film to the underside surface of the wafer.

Spatially tunable deposition to compensate within wafer differential bow

A method for evacuating a volume below a substrate in a substrate processing system includes arranging the substrate on a lift mechanism of a substrate support to define the volume below the substrate between the substrate and an upper surface of the substrate support. An evacuation step is initiated to evacuate the volume below the substrate. The evacuation step includes pumping down the volume below the substrate at least one of through and around the lift mechanism. The lift mechanism is lowered during the evacuation step to position the substrate on the upper surface of the substrate support and the evacuation step is terminated.

Use of vacuum during transfer of substrates

A plasma processing chamber for depositing a film on an underside surface of a wafer, includes showerhead pedestal. The showerhead pedestal includes a first zone and a second zone. An upper separator fin is disposed over a top surface of the showerhead pedestal and a lower separator fin is disposed under the top surface of the showerhead pedestal and aligned with the upper separator fin. The first zone is configured for depositing a first film to the underside surface of the wafer and the second zone is configured for depositing a second film to the underside surface of the wafer. In another embodiment, a top surface of the showerhead pedestal may be configured to receive a masking plate instead of the upper separator fin. The masking plate is configured with a first area that has openings and a second area that is masked. The first areas is used to provide the process gas to a portion of the underside surface of the wafer for depositing a film.

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Tigard, OR, United States of America

Brian Joseph Williams