Method and system for balancing the electrostatic chucking force on a substrate

A method for processing a substrate in a plasma processing chamber, comprising:

• disposing a substrate on an electrostatic chuck, the electrostatic chuck disposed in a plasma processing chamber;
• applying chucking voltage to the electrostatic chuck;
• energizing a plasma within the chamber by the application of RF power coupled to the chamber through an RF matching circuit;
• detecting a change in an electrical characteristic at the RF matching circuit;
• adjusting the chucking voltage in response to the change in the electrical characteristic;
• and
• depositing a layer of a material on the substrate by a physical vapor deposition process utilizing the plasma.

A system for plasma processing a substrate, comprising:

• a plasma processing chamber comprising:
• a chamber body having an inner volume;
• and
• a bipolar electrostatic chuck disposed in the inner volume, the bipolar electrostatic chuck having a pair of electrodes embedded within;
• a first power supply configured to provide chucking voltage to the electrodes;
• and
• a second power supply configured to energize a plasma within the processing chamber by application of power through a radio-frequency (RF) matching circuit coupled to the chamber;
• a sensor configured to detect a change in an electrical characteristic at the RF matching circuit;
• and
• a controller coupled to the power supply and configured to adjust the chucking voltage in response to the change in the electrical characteristic detected by the sensor.