Heat transfer plate for a showerhead electrode assembly of a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsSang Ki NAM, Rajinder DHINDSA, Ryan BISE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat transfer plate useful in a showerhead electrode assembly of a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus. The heat transfer plate includes independently controllable gas volumes which may be pressurized to locally control thermal conductance between a heater member and a cooling member such that uniform temperatures may be established on a plasma exposed surface of the showerhead electrode assembly.
Claims18
A heat transfer plate for use in a plasma processing chamber, the heat transfer plate comprising a plurality of independently controllable gas volumes configured such that a gas pressure within any given one of the plurality of independently controllable gas volumes does not affect another gas pressure within any other of the plurality of independently controllable gas volumes.
A showerhead electrode assembly including:
- a heat transfer plate comprising a plurality of independently controllable gas volumes configured such that a gas pressure within any given one of the plurality of independently controllable gas volumes does not affect another gas pressure within any other of the plurality of independently controllable gas volumes;
- a showerhead electrode;
- at least one sensor, the at least one sensor configured to determine a temperature gradient across a plasma exposed surface of the showerhead electrode during use thereof.
A capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus comprising:
- a vacuum chamber;
- a lower electrode assembly adapted to receive a semiconductor substrate;
- a showerhead electrode assembly comprising a heat transfer plate comprising a plurality of independently controllable gas volumes configured such that a gas pressure within any given one of the plurality of independently controllable gas volumes does not affect another gas pressure within any other of the plurality of independently controllable gas volumes and a showerhead electrode;
- at least one vacuum port in a bottom wall connected to at least one vacuum pump operable to maintain the vacuum chamber at a predetermined vacuum pressure;
- a gas source operable to supply process gas through the showerhead electrode assembly to the vacuum chamber;
- and
- an RF energy supply configured to energize the process gas into a plasma state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.