Tokyo Electron Limited

Ssmc Inc.

Sony Corporation

The Singer Company

Materials Research Corporation

Vaclav Jelinek

Steven D Hurwitt

Anthony D Spasiano

A wafer holder is provided for semiconductor wafer processing that is particularly useful where wafers are held and moved in other than upwardly facing orientations during handling and processing. The holder includes an annular wafer mounting ring that is resiliently mounted to and biased against an annular wafer holder housing. A set of latches is pivotally mounted to the mounting ring. The latches are formed of non-metallic latch bodies and have non-metallic front and back rollers thereon which have rolling peripheries that roll over the surface of the mounting ring, along a circular path on which are formed spherical detents. The rolling peripheries of the rollers conform to the curvature of the detents. The front roller also has a gripping periphery at the outer edge thereof that rolls onto the edge of a wafer held in the holder against the edge of the mounting ring. The mounting ring forms a seal with the backplane of the processing apparatus to prevent plasma from forming around the latches. The mounting ring also registers against a stop to space the wafer from the backplane to protect the device side of the wafer when backside wafer processing is being carried out.

Wafer holding assembly and wafer processing apparatus having said

An apparatus is disclosed for clamping a substrate or wafer with a predetermined force during a sputtering process for maintaining a minimal gap between the wafer and a backplane in order to provide a uniform temperature distribution on the wafer. The apparatus includes a first suspension system which includes a diaphragm having a plurality of spring sections positioned in contact with an outer peripheral area of an upper surface of the wafer. The spring sections are positioned immediately adjacent to each other to provide substantially continuous and uniform loading of the outer periphery in order to eliminate edge gaps. The apparatus further includes a second suspension system which includes a mounting ring having a plurality of springs each of which are secured to a fixed element. The first and second suspension systems are configured such that approximately 80 to 90% of the total spring deflection is provided by the second suspension system whereas the remaining 10 to 20% of the total spring deflection is provided by the first suspension system.

Apparatus and method for clamping a substrate

A wafer heating chuck includes a backplane for mounting the wafer thereon. A rear surface of the backplane includes an outer annular recess with an outer angled wall. An outer annular heater is located within the recess and has an outer surface complementarily angled with respect to the wall. An inner annular heater resides inside the outer heater, adjacent the rear surface. A clamping member secured to the backplane includes inner and outer retainers which separately clamp the inner and outer heaters, respectively, to the backplane to assure solid to solid contact for optimum heat transfer therebetween. Each inner retainer is held by a radially cantilevered segment so that tightening of one inner retainer does not affect clamping force applied by adjacent inner retainers. Similarly, the outer retainers operate on cantilevered segments to yield independent clamping forces. Sensors sense backplane temperature at the inner and outer regions. Sensors are mounted to the backplane proximate the inner and outer heaters to measure the temperature of the backplane. Coolant is directed through channels in the backplane and through channels in a cooling ring secured to a backplane to influence the temperature of the backplane. A controller connects to the heaters, the sensors and coolant supplies for temperature profiling to achieve temperature uniformity during processing for a wafer mounted to the backplane of the heating chuck.

Wafer heating chuck with dual zone backplane heating and segmented

A suction table assembly utilizes a member having a hollow interior with open top and bottom horizontal ends. A partition arrangement is disposed in the interior of the member to partition the member interior into a plurality of cubicles having hollow interiors, each cubicle having open top and bottom horizontal ends respectively flush with the top and bottom ends of the member. A flat perforated horizontal plate overlies the member and is connected to the top ends of all of the cubicles, the perforations in the plate communicating with the interiors of the underlying cubicles. The perforations have like areas and are regularly spaced. A suction producing device producing suction forces is disposed below the bottom ends of the member. A shutter mechanism disposed between and connected to the bottom ends of the cubicles and the suction producing device applies the suction forces to the interiors of the cubicles. The shutter mechanism has a plurality of different suction distributing positions, the amount of suction force applied to each cubicle interior varying in accordance with each different suction distributing position.

Suction table assembly

An easing drum has an elongated horizontal shaft having an elongated horizontal axis about which the shaft is rotatable. A plurality of like circular discs are secured at their centers to said shaft and are rotatable therewith. The discs are spaced apart and lie in parallel vertical planes, each disc having an external periphery covered with a high friction coating. A mechanism is connected to the shaft to rotate it. A horizontally elongated grating is disposed above the shaft. The grating has spaced openings, each opening being aligned with a portion of the external periphery of the corresponding disc. The shaft can be raised to a first position at which the portions of the peripheries extend through the grating openings and can be lowered to a second position at which the openings are spaced above these portions.

Fabric easing drum

A coupling in the drive train between a sewing machine motor and mechanism for driving the sewing instrumentalities of the machine is provided with resilient bumpers. The coupling is further provided with tangs which interface with the bumpers in a manner that is effective to render the spring rate of the coupling variable and reduce both vibrational effects and impact forces in the machine.

Growing community of inventors

River Edge, NJ, United States of America

Vaclav Jelinek