Edge seal for lower electrode assembly
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsDavid Schaefer, Ambarish Chhatre, Keith William Gaff, Sung Lee, Brooke Mesler Lai
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Abstract
A lower electrode assembly useful for supporting a semiconductor substrate in a plasma processing chamber includes a temperature controlled lower base plate, an upper plate, a mounting groove surrounding a bond layer and an edge seal comprising an elastomeric band having an outer concave surface in an uncompressed state, the band mounted in the groove such that upper and lower ends of the band are axially compressed and a maximum outward bulging of the band is no greater than a predetermined distance.
Claims13
A lower electrode assembly useful for supporting a semiconductor substrate in a plasma processing chamber comprising:
- a temperature controlled lower base plate, an upper plate, and a mounting groove surrounding a bond layer located between the temperature controlled lower base plate and the upper plate in the lower electrode assembly;
- and
- an edge seal comprising an annular elastomeric band having upper and lower flat annular surfaces, an outer concave surface in an uncompressed state corresponding to a radial outer surface of the elastomeric band, the band mounted in the groove such that the upper and lower flat annular surfaces of the band are axially compressed between the upper plate and the lower base plate to cause the outer concave surface to bulge outward in a direction that is (i) perpendicular to a direction of axial compression and (ii) radially outward relative to the mounting groove, and a maximum outward bulging of the outer concave surface of the elastomeric band is no greater than a predetermined distance;
- wherein the elastomeric band is compressed at least 1% and outward bulging of the elastomeric band is less than a maximum outer diameter of the elastomeric band in an uncompressed state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.