Substrate Positioning Apparatus And Methods
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsAla Moradian, Travis Tesch
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are apparatus and methods used to process a substrate in a chamber, in particular to position a non-round substrate in a holding chamber or a processing chamber. Further described herein are methods and apparatus that detect radiation transmitted along the thickness of the substrate between the top surface and the bottom surface, determine a signal strength as the substrate is rotated and obtaining a signal strength pattern to determine a position of the substrate within the chamber with respect to a center position.
Claims20
A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
- a chamber;
- a substrate support configured to support a substrate comprising a top surface and a bottom surface defining a substrate thickness, the substrate support configured to rotate the substrate 360 degrees through a plurality of rotational angular positions within the chamber;
- a laser positioned to direct a radiation beam along the thickness between the top surface and the bottom surface;
- a sensor positioned opposite the laser to detect radiation transmitted along the thickness of the substrate between the top surface and the bottom surface;
- and
- a controller configured to analyze a signal strength of the radiation detected by the sensor at the plurality of rotational angular positions and to correlate the signal strength at the plurality of rotational angular positions to a position within the chamber.
An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask production system comprising:
- a holding chamber to provide access to a substrate handling vacuum chamber including a plurality of ports to provide access to a vacuum chamber including, a physical vapor deposition chamber, a pre-clean chamber, and a multi-cathode PVD chamber;
- an EUV mask blank loading system configured to load an EUV mask blank comprising a top surface and a bottom surface defining an EUV mask blank thickness, in at least one of the holding chamber and the vacuum chamber;
- a substrate support configured to support and rotate the EUV mask blank 360 degrees through a plurality of rotational angular positions within at least one of the holding chamber the vacuum chamber;
- a laser positioned to direct a radiation beam along the thickness between the top surface and the bottom surface;
- a sensor positioned opposite the laser to detect radiation transmitted along the thickness of the substrate between the top surface and the bottom surface;
- and
- a controller configured to analyze a signal strength of the radiation detected by the sensor at the plurality of rotational angular positions and to correlate the signal strength at the plurality of rotational angular positions to a position within the vacuum chamber.
A method of positioning a substrate in a chamber comprising:
- placing a rectangular substrate in a chamber on a substrate support, the substrate comprising a top surface and a bottom surface defining a substrate thickness;
- rotating the substrate 360 degrees through a plurality of rotational angular positions within the chamber;
- directing a laser to direct a radiation beam along the thickness between the top surface and the bottom surface;
- detecting radiation from the radiation beam transmitted along the thickness of the substrate between the top surface and the bottom surface;
- and
- analyzing a signal strength of the radiation detected at the plurality of rotational angular positions and correlating the signal strength at the plurality of rotational angular positions to a position within the chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.