Heating plate with planar heating zones for semiconductor processing

A substrate support assembly used to support a semiconductor substrate in a semiconductor processing apparatus, comprising:

• an electrostatic chuck (ESC) including an electrostatic clamping layer having at least one clamping electrode configured to electrostatically clamp a semiconductor substrate on the substrate support assembly;
• a heating plate arranged below the electrostatic clamping layer;
• a cooling plate attached to a lower side of the heating plate by a thermal barrier layer;
• the heating plate comprising:
• a first electrically insulating layer;
• planar heater zones comprising at least first, second, third and fourth planar heater zones, each comprising one or more heater elements, the planar heater zones laterally distributed across the first electrically insulating layer and operable to tune a spatial temperature profile on the substrate;
• power supply lines comprising at least a first electrically conductive power supply line electrically connected to the first and second planar heater zones and a second electrically conductive power supply line electrically connected to the third and fourth planar heater zones;
• power return lines comprising at least a first electrically conductive power return line electrically connected to the first and third planar heater zones and a second electrically conductive power return line electrically connected to the second and fourth planar heater zones;
• and
• wherein (a) the power supply lines are connected to leads electrically insulated from each other and extended through at least one power supply conduit in the cooling plate and the power return lines are connected to leads electrically insulated from each other and extended through at least one power return conduit in the cooling plate;
• or (b) the power supply lines and power return lines are connected to terminal connectors embedded in the cooling plate.