Applied Materials, Inc.

Tao Hou

Jeonghoon Oh

Tom K Cho

Son Truong Nguyen

Anh Ngoc Nguyen

Kenric T Choi

Yao-Hung Yang

Frank F Hooshdaran

Andrzej Matlosz

In one embodiment, a substrate support bushing for a lift pin used in a semiconductor processing chamber is provided. The bushing includes an elongated housing sized to guide the lift pin in a substrate support pedestal. The housing has a longitudinal bore formed through the housing. The housing includes at least one passageway slot extending and open to substantially the entire length of the bore. In another embodiment, a method for transferring a substrate from a substrate support pedestal is provided. The method includes displacing a lift pin through a central bore toward a substrate disposed on a substrate support pedestal. The bore has at least one slot extending substantially along and open to the central bore. The method further includes spacing the substrate from the substrate support pedestal on the lift pin.

Substrate support bushing

A method and apparatus for heating or cooling a fluid is provided. In one embodiment, a heat exchanger is provided. The heat exchanger includes a first subassembly comprising an insert. The insert comprises a body having a blind passage formed axially in the body, a plurality of nozzles formed therein, and a first plurality of heat exchange elements disposed within the body. The heat exchanger also comprises a second subassembly comprising a sleeve and a second plurality of heat exchange elements disposed within the sleeve, wherein the insert is sealably engaged inside the sleeve and the insert and the sleeve cooperatively define a thin gap, and wherein each of the plurality of nozzles are disposed radially between the blind passage and the thin gap.

Gas heater

Methods and substrate processing systems are provided for controlling substrate heating efficiency and generating a desired temperature profile on the surface of a substrate when the substrate is disposed on a substrate support surface of a substrate support assembly. The substrate support assembly is provided with minimum software control and hardware requirement and includes a heating element comprised of multiple heating elements sections. The heating element is connected to a power source for adjusting the temperature outputs of the multiple heating element sections and providing adjustable multi-heating zones and desired temperature distribution over the substrate support surface of the substrate support assembly within a process chamber.

Method and apparatus for substrate support with multi-zone heating

A bushing assembly for supporting a substrate within a processing chamber is generally provided. In one aspect, the bushing assembly comprises a tubular body having an outer perimeter and an aperture extending therethrough, a first ring having a first inner edge, the first ring disposed in the aperture in an upper portion of the tubular body, and a second ring having a second inner edge, the second ring disposed in the aperture in a lower portion of the tubular body. In another aspect, the first inner edge has a first radius of curvature, and the second inner edge has a second radius of curvature. In another aspect, a first inner edge diameter, a second inner edge diameter, the first radius of curvature, and the second radius of curvature are selected such that a support pin extending through the aperture contacts the bushing assembly on at most two points.

A method and apparatus for heating or cooling a fluid. An inlet conduit coupled to a plurality of distribution nozzles in fluid communication with a channel at the periphery of the apparatus. An insert and a sleeve cooperatively define a thin gap, in fluid communication with the channel, through which the fluid flows. Thermal inserts near the thin gap generate heat flux into or out of the fluid, which exits through an outlet conduit.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Tao Hou