Protective cover for electrostatic chuck
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorVijay D. Parkhe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A protective cover for an electrostatic chuck may include a conductive wafer and a plasma resistant ceramic layer on at least one surface of the conductive wafer. The plasma resistant ceramic layer covers a top surface of the conductive wafer, side walls of the conductive wafer and an outer perimeter of a bottom surface of the conductive wafer. Alternatively, a protective cover for an electrostatic chuck may include a plasma resistant bulk sintered ceramic wafer and a conductive layer on a portion of a bottom surface of the plasma resistant bulk sintered ceramic wafer, wherein a perimeter of the bottom surface is not covered. The protective layer may be used to protect an electrostatic chuck during a plasma cleaning process.
Claims20
A method of cleaning a process chamber housing an electrostatic chuck comprising:
- retrieving a protective cover from a storage area, the protective cover comprising:
- a conductive wafer having a resistivity of less than approximately 1013 Ohm-cm;
- and
- a plasma resistant ceramic layer, wherein the plasma resistant ceramic layer covers a top surface of the conductive wafer, side walls of the conductive wafer and an outer perimeter of a bottom surface of the conductive wafer, and wherein an uncoated portion of the bottom surface has a post polish curvature of less than approximately 300 microns;
- positioning the protective cover onto the electrostatic chuck;
- applying a bias to the electrostatic chuck to secure the protective cover, wherein the electrically conductive wafer of the protective cover enables the protective cover to be secured;
- performing a plasma cleaning process to clean the process chamber, wherein the protective cover protects the electrostatic chuck during the plasma cleaning process;
- and
- returning the protective cover to the storage area.
A method of cleaning a process chamber housing an electrostatic chuck comprising:
- retrieving a protective cover from a storage area, the protective cover comprising a plasma resistant ceramic portion and an electrically conductive portion having a resistivity of less than approximately 1013 Ohm-cm, wherein:
- the plasma resistant ceramic portion comprises a top surface of the protective cover, side walls of the protective cover, and an outer perimeter of a bottom surface of the protective cover;
- the electrically conductive portion comprises an inner region of the bottom surface of the protective cover;
- and
- the bottom surface of the protective cover has a post polish curvature of less than approximately 300 microns;
- positioning the protective cover onto the electrostatic chuck;
- applying a bias to the electrostatic chuck to secure the protective cover, wherein the electrically conductive portion of the protective cover enables the protective cover to be secured;
- performing a plasma cleaning process to clean the process chamber, wherein the protective cover protects the electrostatic chuck during the plasma cleaning process;
- and
- returning the protective cover to the storage area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.