High flow vacuum chamber including equipment modules such as a plasma generating source, vacuum pumping arrangement and/or cantilevered substrate support

A vacuum chamber apparatus having a substrate support removably mounted therein in a cantilever fashion comprising:

• a substrate support mounted in an interior of a vacuum processing chamber;
• an opening in a sidewall of the chamber, the opening being large enough to allow the substrate support to be removed from the chamber through the opening;
• a mounting arrangement extending through the opening and removably supporting the substrate support in the interior of the chamber at a position located inwardly of an inner sidewall surface of the chamber;
• and
• the chamber being a high density plasma processing chamber wherein high density plasma is provided in a region adjacent the support substrate, the substrate support including a chucking device which clamps a semiconductor substrate on a support surface of the substrate support.

A vacuum chamber apparatus having a substrate support removably mounted therein in a cantilever fashion comprising:

• a substrate support mounted in an interior of a vacuum processing chamber;
• an opening in a sidewall of the chamber, the opening being large enough to allow the substrate support to be removed from the chamber through the opening;
• a mounting arrangement extending through the opening and removably supporting the substrate support in the interior of the chamber at a position located inwardly of an inner sidewall surface of the chamber, the mounting arrangement including a mounting flange and a support arm, the mounting flange being attached to an exterior surface of the chamber, the support arm having one end thereof joined to the mounting flange and an opposite end thereof joined to the substrate support, the mounting flange including a portion fitted in the opening in the sidewall of the chamber;
• and
• the chamber including an interior cylindrical surface surrounding the substrate support, the opening in the sidewall of the chamber extending through the cylindrical surface, the portion including a curved surface facing the interior of the chamber, the curved surface having edges which lie along edges of the opening in the cylindrical surface.

A vacuum chamber apparatus having a substrate support removably mounted therein in a cantilever fashion comprising:

• a substrate support mounted in an interior of a vacuum processing chamber;
• an opening in a sidewall of the chamber, the opening being large enough to allow the substrate support to be removed from the chamber through the opening;
• and
• a mounting arrangement extending through the opening and removably supporting the substrate support in the interior of the chamber at a position located inwardly of an inner sidewall surface of the chamber, the mounting arrangement including a mounting flange and a support arm, the mounting flange being attached to an exterior surface of the chamber, the support arm having one end thereof joined to the mounting flange and an opposite end thereof joined to the substrate support, the support arm being sized such that flow of process gas through an annular gap between an outer periphery of the substrate support and the inner surface of the sidewall of the chamber is substantially uniform.

A method of processing a substrate in a vacuum process chamber having an substrate support for supporting the substrate during processing thereof, the process chamber including an opening in a sidewall thereof, the opening being large enough to allow the substrate support to be removed from the chamber through the opening and a mounting arrangement extending through the opening and removably supporting the substrate support in the interior of the chamber at a position located inwardly of an inner sidewall of the chamber, the method comprising:

• supplying a substrate to the process chamber at a position on a support surface of the substrate support;
• clamping the substrate to the support surface of the substrate support;
• and
• processing the substrate with gas energized into a plasma state.