Entegris, Inc.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Surmet Corporation

Castle Technology Corporation

Richard A Cooke

I-Kuan Lin

Julian G Blake

Dale K Stone

Lyudmila Stone

Carlo Waldfried

Jakub Rybczynski

Bryan Clark Hendrix

David Walter Peters

David E Suuronen

Weimin Li

Steven Donnell

Nilesh Gunda

George Gonnella

Wade Krull

Charles W Extrand

J Paul Pemsler

Mark W Vose

John E Pillion

Yan Liu

John K Litchfield

Chandra Venkatraman

Sung In Moon

Suri A Sastri

Wolfram Neff

John Michael Glasko

Nate Richard

Michael Hanagan

Mark B Smith

John Glasko

Coatings applicable to a variety of substrate articles, structures, materials, and equipment are described. In various applications, the substrate includes metal surface susceptible to formation of oxide, nitride, fluoride, or chloride of such metal thereon, wherein the metal surface is configured to be contacted in use with gas, solid, or liquid that is reactive therewith to form a reaction product that is deleterious to the substrate article, structure, material, or equipment. The metal surface is coated with a protective coating preventing reaction of the coated surface with the reactive gas, and/or otherwise improving the electrical, chemical, thermal, or structural properties of the substrate article or equipment. Various methods of coating the metal surface are described, and for selecting the coating material that is utilized.

Coatings for enhancement of properties and performance of substrate articles and apparatus

Coatings applicable to a variety of substrate articles, structures, materials, and equipment are described. In various applications, the substrate includes metal surface susceptible to formation of oxide, nitride, fluoride, or chloride of such metal thereon, wherein the metal surface is configured to be contacted in use with gas, solid, or liquid that is reactive therewith to form a reaction product that deleterious to the substrate article, structure material, or equipment. The metal surface is coated with a protective coating preventing reaction of the coated surface with the reactive gas, and/or otherwise improving the electrical, chemical, thermal, or structural properties of the substrate article or equipment. Various methods of coating the metal surface are described, and for selecting the coating material that is utilized.

A vacuum chuck with polymeric embossments is disclosed. The polymeric embossments are formed on the surface of a base substrate and are lapped to a flatness such that a wafer substrate clamped by the vacuum chuck has a peak to valley flatness that is less than a peak to valley flatness across the base substrate. Lapping of the polymeric embossments accommodates for variations in the flatness of the base substrate so long as the embossments are tall enough to stand over the peak to valley height variations in the base substrate.

Vacuum chuck with polymeric embossments

An electrostatic chuck includes a ceramic structural element, at least one electrode disposed on the ceramic structural element, and a surface dielectric layer disposed over the at least one electrode, the surface layer activated by a voltage in the electrode to form an electric charge to electrostatically clamp a substrate to the electrostatic chuck. The surface dielectric layer comprises: (i) an insulator layer of amorphous alumina, of a thickness of less than about 5 microns, disposed over the at least one electrode; and (ii) a stack of dielectric layers disposed over the insulator layer. The stack of dielectric layers includes: (a) at least one dielectric layer including aluminum oxynitride; and (b) at least one dielectric layer including at least one of silicon oxide and silicon oxynitride.

Electrostatic chuck and method of making same

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an electrostatic chuck comprising an electrode, and a surface layer activated by a voltage in the electrode to form an electric charge to electrostatically clamp a substrate to the electrostatic chuck. The surface layer includes a plurality of protrusions extending to a height above portions of the surface layer surrounding the protrusions to support the substrate upon the protrusions during electrostatic clamping of the substrate. The protrusions are substantially equally spaced across the surface layer as measured by a center to center distance between pairs of neighboring protrusions.

Electrostatic chuck

In one embodiment, a method of fabricating an electrostatic clamp includes forming an insulator body, forming an electrode on the insulator body, and depositing a layer stack on the electrode, the layer stack comprising an aluminum oxide layer that is deposited using atomic layer deposition (ALD).

Diffusion resistant electrostatic clamp

A sensor comprises a sensor layer comprising a ceramic material; an adhesion layer comprising chromium, the adhesion layer adhered to one or more portions of a liquid facing surface of the sensor layer; and an isolator film comprising a polymer, the isolator film overlaying a liquid facing surface of the adhesion layer. The isolator film may be used to protect the sensor from corrosive and high temperature fluids, for example to protect the sensor from long term exposure to hot water between 85&#xb0; C. and 100&#xb0; C.

Sensor with protective layer

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a soft protrusion structure for an electrostatic chuck, which offers a non-abrasive contact surface for wafers, workpieces or other substrates, while also having improved manufacturability and compatibility with grounded surface platen designs. The soft protrusion structure comprises a photo-patternable polymer.

Electrostatic chuck with photo-patternable soft protrusion contact surface

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an electrostatic chuck comprising a conductive path covering at least a portion of a workpiece-contacting surface of a gas seal ring of the electrostatic chuck, the conductive path comprising at least a portion of an electrical path to ground; and a main field area of a workpiece-contacting surface of the electrostatic chuck comprising a surface resistivity in the range of from about 10to about 10ohms per square.

High conductivity electrostatic chuck

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an electrostatic chuck. The electrostatic chuck comprises an electrode, and a surface layer activated by a voltage in the electrode to form an electric charge to electrostatically clamp a substrate to the electrostatic chuck, the surface layer including a charge control layer comprising a surface resistivity of greater than about 10ohms per square.

High surface resistivity electrostatic chuck

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an electrostatic chuck. The electrostatic chuck comprises a surface layer activated by a voltage in an electrode to form an electric charge to electrostatically clamp a substrate to the electrostatic chuck. The surface layer includes a plurality of polymer protrusions and a charge control layer to which the plurality of polymer protrusions adhere, the plurality of polymer protrusions extending to a height above portions of the charge control layer surrounding the plurality of polymer protrusions to support the substrate upon the plurality of polymer protrusions during electrostatic clamping of the substrate.

Electrostatic chuck with polymer protrusions

Metal bonded carbon fiber-reinforced composites are disclosed in which the metal and the composite are strongly bound by (1) providing a matrix-depleted zone in the composite of sufficient depth to provide a binding site for the metal to be bonded and then (2) infiltrating the metal into the matrix-free zone to fill a substantial portion of the zone and also provide a surface layer of metal, thereby forming a strong bond between the composite and the metal. The invention also includes the metal-bound composite itself, as well as the provision of a coating over the metal for high-temperature performance or for joining to other such composites or to other substrates.

Growing community of inventors

Framingham, MA, United States of America

Richard A Cooke