Spts Technologies Limited

Trikon Holdings Limited

Trikon Equipments Limited

Spp Process Technology Systems UK Limited

David Andrew Tossell

Oliver James Ansell

Gautham Ragunathan

Kevin Powell

Paul G Bennett

Martin Hanicinec

Anthony Barrass

Matthew Peter Martin

Graham Richard Powell

Mark Puttock

Mark Stephen Puttock

Alan Victor Iacopi

Paul Bennett

Oliver Ansell

An apparatus is for plasma dicing a semiconductor substrate of the type forming part of a workpiece, the workpiece further including a carrier sheet on a frame member, where the carrier sheet carries the semiconductor substrate. The apparatus includes a chamber, a plasma production device configured to produce a plasma within the chamber suitable for dicing the semiconductor substrate, a workpiece support located in the chamber for supporting the workpiece through contact with the carrier sheet, and a frame cover element configured to, in use, contact the frame member thereby clamping the carrier sheet against an auxiliary element disposed in the chamber.

Apparatus for plasma dicing

A method is for detecting a condition associated with a final phase of a plasma dicing process. The method includes providing a non-metallic substrate having a plurality of dicing lanes defined thereon, plasma etching through the substrate along the dicing lanes, wherein during the plasma etching infrared emission emanating from at least a portion of the dicing lanes is monitored so that an increase in infrared emission from the dicing lanes is observed as the final phase of the plasma dicing operation is entered, and detecting the condition associated with the final phase of the plasma dicing from the monitored infrared emission.

Method of detecting a condition

Apparatus for chemically etching a workpiece includes a chamber for receiving a process gas and having a pumping port for extracting exhaust gases, and a workpiece support located in the chamber upstream of the pumping port. The chamber further includes a sub-chamber located upstream of the pumping port and downstream of the workpiece support, and the sub-chamber includes a window and an excitation source, adjacent the window, for creating a plasma in a sample of the exhaust gases to create an optical emission which can be monitored through the window.

Apparatus for chemically etching a workpiece

This invention relates to electrostatic clamping and associated clamps. A particular method is described of clamping a wafer, during the process that creates asymmetric stress in the wafer, to an electrostatic chuck having a concave portion in its clamping surface characterized in that the wafer is initially clamped around its periphery in a generally flat orientation and then is bowed into the concavity as the asymmetric stress is created in the wafer. It is particularly preferred that the degree of concavity of the chuck is such as to maintain a gas seal between the wafer and the chuck sufficient to allow backside cooling of the water.

Method of clamping a wafer during a process that creates asymmetric stress in the wafer

This invention relates to a method of etching a substrate in a chamber on an electrostatic chuck, which defines a gas cooling path at the substrate/chuck interface. The method includes electrostatically clamping the substrate on the chuck with gas in the gas path being at a first pressure; etching the substrate at a first power; detecting the end point for the etc; reducing the gas pressure to a second pressure at which the substrate floats on a gas; and over etching the wafer at a second power, which is lower than the first power.

Method of etching a substrate

An electrostatic chuck,for a plasma reactor apparatus,comprises a base metallic section,, a pair of electrodes,set in bonding material,and electrically insulated from the base by a plate,and a thick dielectric layer,(e.g. 0.5 to 1.5 mm), which covers the electrodes,and bonding material,and forms the support surfaces for wafers

Electrostatic chucks

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Bristol, United Kingdom

David Andrew Tossell