Tokyo Electron Limited

Michael James Lombardi

Stephen D Coomer

Glyn J Reynolds

John McIntee

Jozsef Michael Iha

Robert T Borra

Eric Lusby

Robert F Foster

Frederick T Turner

Stanislaw Kopacz

Robert Clark Rowan, Jr

Doug Caldwell

Todd Michael Visconti

Albert Garcia, Jr

Thomas J Horback

Dean Mize

Mark McNicholas

Gon Wang

John Francis Mcintee

One or more chambers of a multi-chamber vacuum processing apparatus are provided with a high gas flow conductance path to an exhaust volume of the apparatus that is maintained at high vacuum with a high vacuum pump. Separate pumps for the one or more chambers are made unnecessary by providing such chambers with a protective deposition shield or shield set that is configured to substantially protect walls of the chamber and the gas flow conductance path from deposition and to partially impede the gas flow from the chamber through the gas flow conductance path to the exhaust volume so that the chamber can be operated at a higher pressure than that of the exhaust volume and the chambers can be operated at different pressures and without cross-contamination. Preferably, a nested set of chamber shields is used. A controller is programmed to control the processing of wafers in the chambers by controlling the supply of process gas into the chambers.

Vacuum-processing chamber-shield and multi-chamber pumping method

Apparatus and methods for a wafer handling system that manipulates semiconductor wafers. The invention includes an end effector having a vacuum chuck, an internal vacuum plenum, and flow diverters positioned within the vacuum plenum that define vacuum distribution channels coupled in fluid communication with vacuum ports of the vacuum chuck. The invention also includes a vacuum chuck having flow diverters positioned in one or more internal vacuum plenums that are in fluid communication with the vacuum ports of the vacuum chuck. The flow diverters adjust the vacuum pressure supplied to the vacuum ports such that, as vacuum ports are occluded by the wafer, the vacuum pressure is preferentially applied to unblocked vacuum ports for increasing the attractive force applied to unengaged portions of the wafer. The apparatus of the present invention has particularly utility for securing thin semiconductor wafers with a significant warpage.

Apparatus and methods for manipulating semiconductor wafers

A wafer handling system and a method of retrofitting the system to an existing wafer handling apparatus are provided that make possible a method of handling wafers by contacting only a narrow area of not more than two millimeters wide adjacent the edge of the wafer, which is particularly useful for backside deposition where device side contact defines an area of exclusion that renders the wafer unusable in that area. The system provides a chuck on a wafer transfer arm that holds a wafer by gravity on a segmented, upwardly facing annular surface. A compatible annular surface is provided on an aligning station chuck so that wafers can be transferred by contact only with the exclusion area of the wafer surface. A load arm has two similarly compatible chucks further provided with pneumatically actuated grippers to allow the wafer to be loaded into a vertical processing apparatus. The wafer chucks are retrofitted into a processing apparatus in place of vacuum chucks and the vacuum lines that were provided to activate them are used for wafer detection. The electrical signals that were provided for vacuum chuck commands are utilized to actuate the grippers on the transfer arm so that no control software and little hardware need be altered for the retrofit.

Reduced edge contact wafer handling system and method of retrofitting and using same

A backplane assembly for a substrate processing system that is selectively configurable to provide an effective thermal contact with substrates of differing sizes. The backplane assembly includes a backplane base installed in a vacuum chamber of the substrate processing system and plural faceplates which are removably mountable to the backplane base. The backplane assembly is operable for regulating the temperature of the substrate and include elements that promote the efficient transfer of heat between the backplane base and the faceplate to perform the temperature regulation during processing. Each of the faceplates has a contact surface dimensioned and configured to engage a correspondingly dimensioned and/or configured type of substrate. The faceplates are readily demountable from the backplane base for exchange to accommodate a change in the dimension and/or configuration of the substrates being processed by the substrate processing system without removing the backplane base from the vacuum chamber.

Universal backplane assembly and methods

Apparatus and methods for a wafer handling system that manipulates semiconductor wafers. The present invention includes an end effector having a vacuum chuck, an internal vacuum plenum, and a plurality of flow diverters positioned within the vacuum plenum to define vacuum distribution channels in fluid communication with respective vacuum ports of the vacuum chuck. The present invention also includes a vacuum chuck having flow diverters positioned in one or more internal vacuum plenums which are in fluid communication with the vacuum ports of the vacuum chuck. The flow diverters of the vacuum chucks adjust the vacuum pressure supplied to the vacuum ports such that, as vacuum ports are occluded by the wafer, the vacuum pressure is preferentially applied to unblocked vacuum ports for increasing the attractive force applied to unengaged portions of the wafer. The wafer handling system also includes a gas dispensing showerhead that may be positioned above a vacuum chuck for flattening the wafer so that a vacuum chuck can establish a secure engagement. The apparatus of the present invention has particularly utility for securing thin semiconductor wafers with a significant warpage.

Growing community of inventors

Phoenix, AZ, United States of America

Michael James Lombardi