Entegris, Inc.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Steven Donnell

Yan Liu

Jakub Rybczynski

Chun Wang Chan

Caleb Minsky

Richard A Cooke

Chandra Venkatraman

Julian G Blake

Carlo Waldfried

Dale K Stone

David E Suuronen

Lyudmila Stone

Mark W Vose

Nate Richard

Described are electrostatic chucks that are useful to support a workpiece during a step of processing the workpiece, the electrostatic chuck including a pattern of charge dissipation lines on an insulating layer, the lines having a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer and being arranged to define enclosed fields of the insulating layer between the lines.

Electrostatic chuck with a charge dissipation structure

Described are electrostatic chucks designed for use in supporting a workpiece during a workpiece processing step, the electrostatic chuck including a gas flow system.

Electrostatic chuck having a gas flow feature, and related methods

An electrostatic chuck solves the problem of wafer sticking by providing conductive paths on raised embossments that are bridged together and are connected to ground that support the wafer substrate above the surface of the electrostatic chuck. Further, laterally spaced electrode patterns and electrode elements which are spaced laterally and longitudinally away from the raised embossments reduce or eliminate electrical coupling during wafer clamping between conductively coated embossments and the electrode elements, thereby creating a low resistance path for charges remaining on the wafer after declamping to promptly travel to ground. The conductive bridge and electrode pattern configuration also substantially reduces or eliminates any charge build up on the conductive bridge(s) during clamping in order that charge build up in 'islands' (worn portions of the insulator layer of the main field area) do not affect the charge dissipation from the wafer substrate through the conductive bridges to ground.

Electrostatic chuck with charge dissipation coating

Described are electrostatic chucks that are useful to support a workpiece during a step of processing the workpiece, the electrostatic chuck including embossments that are made of multiple deposited layers, the layers including diamond-like carbon layers and layers that contain silicon-based materials such as silicon carbide layers.

Electrostatic chuck with embossments that comprise diamond-like carbon and deposited silicon-based material, and related methods

Described are multi-layer electrostatic chucks used to secure and support a wafer substrate during wafer processing, and related methods, wherein the chuck includes a grounding structure that includes a grounding layer and a grounding pin.

Grounding mechanism for multi-layer for electrostatic chuck, and related methods

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 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.

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Burlington, MA, United States of America

Steven Donnell