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US 8,804,299 B2Granted
Electrostatic chuck and a method for supporting a wafer
AssigneeApplied Materials Israel Ltd.
InventorsGuy Eytan, Shmuel Shmulik Nakash, Konstantin Chirko
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrostatic chuck includes an isolating substrate that surrounds at least one electrode; multiple protrusions having upper portions arranged to contact a wafer; and at least one discharging element positioned between the at least one electrode and the upper portions of the multiple protrusions; which discharging element, once coupled to a discharging circuit, is arranged to discharge charge accumulated in the isolating substrate.
Claims21
An electrostatic chuck, comprising:
- an isolating substrate that surrounds multiple electrodes;
- multiple protrusions having upper portions arranged to contact a wafer;
- multiple discharging elements each positioned between one of the multiple electrodes and the upper portions of the multiple protrusions;
- wherein the multiple discharging elements are arranged to discharge charge accumulated in the isolating substrate.
1 more element
A method for operating an electrostatic chuck, the method comprising:
- placing a wafer on protrusions of an electrostatic chuck, the electrostatic chuck including an isolating substrate that surrounds at least one electrode and at least one discharging element that extends along an upper surface of the isolating substrate and under at least a portion of the multiple protrusions;
- operating the electrostatic chuck in a chucking mode during which that at least one discharging element is placed at a floating electrical potential;
- operating the electrostatic chuck in a discharging mode in which the discharging element is coupled to a discharging circuit for discharging charge accumulated in the isolating substrate;
- and
- removing the wafer from the electrostatic chuck.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.