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US 2001/0036742 A1Published application
Two-piece chuck
AssigneeCutek Research, Inc.
InventorJOSEPH WYTMAN
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A two-piece chuck for supporting a substrate in which a base plate allows the wafer to tilt and also exposes the underside of the wafer during wash/rinse cycle as well as during load/unload operations.
Claims20
An apparatus for supporting a substrate residing thereon comprising:
- a base support for supporting an outer peripheral area of the substrate residing thereon, said base support having a central open region;
- a central disk residing within the central open region for mounting onto a shaft assembly, said central disk coupled to said base support to allow said base support to tilt relative to said central disk and also to move vertically relative to said central disk to disengage a peripheral area of the substrate from said base support while the substrate is still residing on said central disk.
A wafer chuck for supporting a semiconductor wafer comprising:
- a base plate for supporting an outer peripheral area of the wafer residing thereon, said base plate having a central open region;
- a central disk residing within the central open region for mounting onto a shaft assembly, said central disk coupled to said base plate to allow said base plate to tilt relative to said central disk and to move vertically relative to said central disk to disengage a peripheral area of the wafer from said base support while the wafer is still residing on said central disk.
A wafer processing chamber comprising:
- a sleeve for forming an enclosing vessel to retain a processing fluid therein;
- a wafer chuck for having a wafer resident thereon and when coupled to enclose a bottom opening of said sleeve, the sleeve engages an outer periphery of the wafer in order for the wafer to form an enclosing floor to retain the processing fluid within the vessel;
- said wafer chuck comprising:
- (1) a base plate for supporting an outer peripheral area of the wafer residing thereon, said base plate having a central open region;
- (2) a central disk residing within the central open region for mounting onto a shaft assembly, said central disk coupled to said base plate to allow said base plate to tilt relative to said central disk, when engaging said sleeve to provide a compliant engagement of the wafer to the sleeve;
- and said base plate being moved vertically relative to said central disk to disengage a peripheral area of the wafer from said base support while the wafer is still residing on said central disk.
3 more elements
A method of processing a semiconductor wafer comprising:
- placing a wafer atop a wafer chuck, the chuck having a base plate and a central disk, in which the central disk resides within a central open region of the base plate and is rigidly coupled to a shaft assembly, but in which the base plate is free to tilt relative to the central disk;
- engaging the wafer to a hollow sleeve which forms an enclosing vessel to retain a processing fluid therein, the wafer forming a floor of the vessel;
- processing the wafer utilizing the processing fluid and in which tilting of the wafer by the base plate allows for a compliant engagement of the wafer and the sleeve to adjust for gaps present at the engagement to prevent or reduce leakage of the processing fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.