Wafer Placement Table Tapered Cooling Channel
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing wafer placement tables experience uneven cooling, with wafers being harder to cool near the outlet of the refrigerant flow channel due to constant cross-sectional shape, leading to insufficient soaking performance.
Innovation Solution
A wafer placement table design with a refrigerant flow channel having a decreasing cross-sectional area from the upstream to the downstream part, promoting heat exchange and reducing temperature differences across the wafer placement surface, utilizing a metal matrix composite cooling base and metal bonding layer for enhanced thermal conductivity and stress relaxation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the cross-sectional shape of the refrigerant flow channel is kept constant from inlet to outlet, then the structure is simple, but the wafer cooling performance becomes uneven with insufficient soaking performance
Solution Approach 1:
The refrigerant flow channel is designed with varying cross-sectional area along its length, creating different local characteristics: larger cross-section at the upstream end for better cooling, and smaller cross-section at the downstream end for enhanced heat exchange. This local variation in geometry optimizes the cooling performance across different regions of the wafer surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The cross-sectional area parameter of the refrigerant flow channel is changed progressively from the upstream end to the downstream end. This parameter change creates a gradient in heat exchange efficiency, allowing the system to achieve uniform wafer cooling by compensating for the temperature rise of refrigerant as it flows through the channel.
2Temperature
If the cross-sectional area of the refrigerant flow channel is reduced at the downstream part, then heat exchange is promoted, but pressure loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cross-sectional area of the refrigerant flow channel is gradually reduced from the upstream end to the downstream end, creating a controlled parameter change. This gradual reduction promotes heat exchange efficiency while managing pressure loss by avoiding abrupt transitions, thereby optimizing the balance between thermal performance and fluid dynamics.
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 configuration increases the soaking performance of wafers by enhancing heat dissipation and reducing temperature gradients, while maintaining sufficient refrigerant flow rate and pressure loss within acceptable limits.
Implementation Method 1
refrigerant flows from the most upstream part of the refrigerant flow channel toward the most downstream part while dissipating heat from a high-temperature wafer
Implementation Method 2
since the cross-sectional area of the refrigerant flow channel at the most downstream part of the refrigerant flow channel is less than the cross-sectional area of the refrigerant flow channel at the most upstream part of the refrigerant flow channel, a pressure loss is larger at the most downstream part than at the most upstream part
Data Source
AI summary
A wafer placement table includes a ceramic base having a wafer placement surface on its top surface where a wafer is able to be placed and incorporating an electrode; a cooling base having a refrigerant flow channel; and a bonding layer that bonds the ceramic base with the cooling base, wherein in an area that overlaps the wafer placement surface in plan view of the refrigerant flow channel, a cross-sectional area of the refrigerant flow channel at a most downstream part of the refrigerant flow channel is less than the cross-sectional area at a most upstream part of the refrigerant flow channel.