Wafer holder for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and method of manufacturing the wafer holder

Abstract

A wafer holder for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus has a high heat conductivity. The wafer holder includes a sintered ceramic piece, a conductive layer such as a heater circuit pattern which can be formed with high precision on at least one surface of the sintered ceramic piece, and a protective layer formed over the conductive layer on the sintered ceramic piece so as to cover a surface of the conductive layer. The protective layer may contain a glass, a non-oxide ceramic such as aluminum nitride or silicon nitride, an oxide of ytterbium, neodymium and calcium, or an oxide of yttrium and aluminum. In a method of manufacturing the wafer holder, a paste containing metal particles is applied on a surface of the sintered ceramic piece and is fired to form a heater circuit pattern as the conductive layer. Then the protective layer is formed on the sintered ceramic piece to cover the surface of the conductive layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.