Simultaneous front side ash and backside clean

A method for removing material from a work piece comprising:

• providing a reaction chamber having a plurality of processing stations;
• providing a substrate within at least one station of said plurality of processing stations;
• positioning said substrate over a platen residing in said at least one station to form a gap therein that prevents said substrate from contacting said platen;
• flowing a plasma into said at least one station over said substrate and into said gap;
• and
• simultaneously contacting a front side and a backside of said substrate with said plasma for simultaneously removing at least a portion of material from both said front side and said backside of said substrate while holding said substrate with fingers of a wafer transfer means.

An apparatus for removing material from a work piece comprising:

• a reaction chamber having a plasma source and an RF coil for generating a plasma;
• a processing station with a platen;
• a transfer means within said reaction chamber having a number of fingers for directly contacting a backside of a substrate residing within said apparatus, wherein during removal processing, said number of fingers reside between said backside of said substrate and said platen;
• and
• a gap residing between said platen and said substrate, said gap enabling the simultaneous removal of material from both a front side and said backside of said substrate using said plasma.