Magnetically levitated gas cell for touchless site-isolated wet processing
AssigneeIntermolecular, Inc.
InventorsRajesh Kelekar, Kent Riley Child
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A protective chuck is magnetically levitated on a substrate with a gas layer between the bottom surface of the protective chuck and the substrate surface. The gas layer protects a surface region of the substrate against a fluid layer covering the remaining of the substrate surface without contacting the substrate, reducing or eliminating potential damage to the substrate surface. The magnetically levitated protective chuck can enable combinatorial processing of a substrate, providing multiple isolated processing regions on a single substrate with different material and processing conditions.
Claims20
A method for processing a substrate, the method comprising
- positioning a chuck above a first surface region of a substrate, wherein the chuck is levitated using a magnetic force;
- forming a layer of gas between a bottom surface of the chuck and the first surface region of the substrate;
- and
- applying a fluid on a second region of the substrate, wherein the second region is different from the first surface region.
A chuck comprising
- a bottom surface;
- a first gas conduit terminating at the bottom surface;
- a second gas conduit terminating at the bottom surface;
- and
- a magnetic material disposed in the chuck,
- wherein the magnetic material is configured to levitate the chuck above a surface region of the substrate by magnetic repulsion.
A combinatorial processing system comprising
- a chuck comprising a first gas conduit and second gas conduit, wherein each of the gas conduits is operable to provide a gas flow across a bottom surface of the chuck;
- a first magnetic material disposed in the chuck;
- and
- a substrate support comprising a second magnetic material,
- wherein the first and second magnetic materials are configured to generate magnetic repulsion to levitate the chuck above the substrate support.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.