Rotating Substrate Support Gas Paths for Reliable Wafer Seating
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Solution Overview
Problem
In substrate processing systems, trapped gases between the substrate and the substrate support can cause the substrate to float and shift during processing, leading to reduced friction and pressure bias, which can affect processing accuracy and throughput.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for evacuating the volume below the substrate by pumping down the space between the substrate and the substrate support using a lift mechanism with channels or fluid passages, ensuring gases are evacuated before the substrate is lowered, thereby preventing gas trapping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the substrate is lowered onto the substrate support without evacuating the volume below it, then the substrate may become trapped between the support and the chamber floor, but the processing throughput is maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by evacuating the volume below the substrate before the substrate is lowered onto the substrate support. This pre-evacuation prevents gas trapping that would occur if the substrate were lowered first, thereby ensuring reliable substrate seating without requiring post-lowering evacuation that would delay processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the harmful trapped gas from the system by providing evacuation paths through the substrate support structure. The support includes channels or porous regions that allow gas to be removed from the volume between the substrate and support, preventing the hockey puck effect and ensuring proper substrate contact.
2Manufacturing precision
If the volume below the substrate is evacuated before lowering, then the substrate is properly seated and centered, but the processing time increases due to additional evacuation steps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the evacuation operation with the substrate lowering operation by providing evacuation paths through the substrate support structure itself. This integration allows gas to be evacuated during the lowering process rather than requiring separate evacuation steps before or after lowering, thereby maintaining positioning accuracy without adding significant time.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention enables continuous useful action by performing evacuation concurrently with the substrate lowering process. The evacuation paths through the support structure allow gas removal to occur continuously as the substrate approaches the support, eliminating idle evacuation time and maintaining continuous processing flow.
3Reliability
If the substrate support includes channels or porous regions for gas evacuation, then gas trapping is prevented, but the structural complexity of the support increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies porous materials by incorporating porous regions within the substrate support structure. These porous regions provide multiple distributed pathways for gas evacuation without requiring complex external channel systems. The porous structure naturally provides numerous escape routes for trapped gas while maintaining a relatively simple overall support design.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention applies segmentation by dividing the evacuation function into multiple distributed channels or porous regions throughout the substrate support structure. Rather than relying on a single complex evacuation system, the support includes multiple simpler pathways distributed across its structure, achieving effective gas removal through distributed simplicity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively prevents the 'hockey puck' effect by ensuring the substrate is properly seated and centered on the substrate support, enhancing processing accuracy and maintaining high throughput by eliminating delays associated with pre-processing chamber vacuuming.
Implementation Method 1
pumping down the space between the substrate and the substrate support using a lift mechanism with channels or fluid passages
Data Source
AI summary
A substrate processing apparatus includes a processing chamber and a rotating mechanism. The rotating mechanism is configured to rotate about a center axis of a shaft, where the shaft includes a flow path configured to flow gases through the shaft.