Protective coating for electrostatic chucks
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsStephen TOPPING, Vincent BURKHART
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ElectroStatic Chuck (ESC) including a chucking surface having at least a portion covered with a coating of silicon oxide (SiO2), silicon nitride (Si3N4) or a combination of both. The coating can be applied in situ a processing chamber of a substrate processing tool and periodically removed and re-applied in situ to create fresh coating.
Claims42
An ElectroStatic Chuck (ESC), comprising a pedestal having a chucking surface arranged to chuck a substrate, wherein at least a portion of the chucking surface has a coating of silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
A method, comprising:
- (a) using a halogen-based cleaning agent to remove a first coating formed on a chucking surface of an ElectroStatic Chuck (ESC) pedestal;
- and
- (b) depositing a second coating formed on the chucking surface of the ESC pedestal.
A method of forming a coating onto a chucking surface of an ElectroStatic Chuck (ESC) within a processing chamber of a substrate processing tool.
A substrate processing tool, comprising:
- a processing chamber;
- an ElectroStatic Chuck (ESC) pedestal, having a chucking surface for chucking a substrate, arranged within the processing chamber;
- wherein the substrate processing tool is further arranged to implement a maintenance routing comprising:
- (a) cleaning deposits formed on surfaces within the processing chamber and the chucking surface using a cleaning agent provided in the processing chamber;
- and
- (b) coating the surfaces within the processing chamber and the chucking surface with either silicon oxide or silicon nitride following the cleaning,
- wherein the cleaning and the coating of the chucking surface is performed in situ the processing chamber while the surfaces within the processing chamber are cleaned and coated respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.