Method for deterministic finishing of a chuck surface
AssigneeM Cubed Technologies, Inc.
InventorEdward J. Gratrix
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a deterministic setting for finishing the support surface of a chuck such as a wafer chuck, the treatment tool may have a contacting surface shaped as a ring, annulus, or toroid, or at least such will be the form of contact when the treatment tool is brought into contact with a flat surface. The treatment tool may have about the same hardness as the work piece (e.g., the wafer chuck) that is being finished. In one embodiment, the treatment tool, or at least the flat contacting surface, is made from silicon carbide (SiC), or contains SiC, for example, in the form of a composite material such as reaction-bonded SiC.
Claims19
A method for finishing a support surface of a chuck, the support surface having a first diameter and having a first hardness, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a machine comprising a plurality of treatment tools, each of the treatment tools comprising a slightly toroid-shaped surface configured to contact and pass over said support surface, wherein said slightly toroid-shaped surface of one or more first of said treatment tools comprises a second diameter and wherein said slightly toroid-shaped surface of one or more second of said treatment tools comprises a third diameter smaller than the second diameter;
- (b) providing information to said machine concerning one or more regions on the support surface that require correction;
- (c) physically or mechanically contacting said slightly toroid-shaped surfaces of said treatment tools to said support surface;
- and
- (d) flattening said support surface with said one or more first treatment tools and imparting localized roughness to said support surface with said one or more second treatment tools by moving said treatment tools at independent applied pressures over at least a portion of said support surface to be finished,
- wherein said independent applied pressure of each of said treatment tools against said support surface is controllable and is independent of that of the others of said treatment tools, whereby said machine responds deterministically to said inputted information to treat substantially only those regions of said support surface that require correction;
- wherein each of said treatment tools has a second hardness being about the same as the first hardness as said support surface;
- and
- wherein the first diameter of said support surface is larger than an effective diameter of the treatment tools.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.