Turbomolecular pump and cathode assembly for etching reactor
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsThorsten Lill, Mariusch Gregor
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Abstract
A processing chamber and method of etching a semi-conductor substrate are presented. The processing chamber is symmetric, with the centerlines of a chuck and stem of a stage to retain a semi-conductor substrate aligned with a centerline of a passage in a core of a pump used to evacuate the processing chamber and with a center-line of a gas port through which gas is introduced to the processing chamber. The stem extends through the passage and a spiral groove is formed in the passage in only one of the stem or an inner surface of the core to provide pumping action to counter back streaming of the gas from an exhaust of the pump in an intermediate and viscous flow regime inside a gap between the stem and the core.
Claims20
A processing chamber system comprising:
- a processing chamber comprising:
- a gas port to introduce gas into an upper region of the processing chamber:
- and
- a stage disposed within the processing chamber under the gas port;
- and
- a pump arranged at a lower region of the processing chamber to remove the gas from the processing chamber, the pump including a core having a passage disposed therein,
- wherein the stage comprises a chuck configured to retain a substrate and a stein extending from the chuck, the stem configured to pass through the passage in the core.
A processing chamber comprising:
- a gas port to introduce gas into an upper region of the processing chamber;
- a stage disposed under the gas port, the stage comprising a chuck configured to retain a substrate and a stem extending from the chuck;
- and
- a travel stop configured to control movement of the stage toward the pump.
An apparatus of a pump, the apparatus comprising:
- rotor stages each comprising rotor blades configured to rotate with rotation of the rotor stage;
- stator stages each comprising stator blades configured to remain stationary with rotation of the stator stage, the stator blades disposed at a different angle than an angle of the rotor blades, the stator stages interleaved with the rotor stages;
- and
- a cylindrical core from which the rotor stages and stator stages extend, a center of the cylindrical core having a passage disposed vertically therethrough, the passage having a diameter sized to accept a stem of a processing chamber stage on which a substrate is retained on a chuck, the stem extending from the chuck.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.