Tunable temperature controlled substrate support assembly

US10535544B2 · US · B2

Patent metadata
FieldValue
Publication numberUS-10535544-B2
Application numberUS-201615212946-A
CountryUS
Kind codeB2
Filing dateJul 18, 2016
Priority dateJul 23, 2014
Publication dateJan 14, 2020
Grant dateJan 14, 2020

How to read this patent

A practical reading order for non-experts. Skip the full description unless you need deep technical detail.

  1. Title

    What the patent document calls the invention.

  2. Abstract

    A short plain-language summary of the technical disclosure.

  3. Assignees and inventors

    Who owns or filed the patent and who is credited as inventor.

  4. Key dates

    Filing, priority, publication, and grant dates set the timeline.

  5. First independent claim

    The legal scope of protection — read this for what is actually claimed.

  6. CPC / IPC classifications

    Technology tags used to group this patent with similar filings.

  7. Citations and related patents

    Prior art links and similar publications in this corpus.

Abstract

Official abstract text for this publication.

Implementations described herein provide a substrate support assembly which enables both lateral and azimuthal tuning of the heat transfer between an electrostatic chuck and a heating assembly. The substrate support assembly comprises a body having a substrate support surface and a lower surface, one or more main resistive heaters disposed in the body, a plurality of spatially tunable heaters disposed in the body, and a spatially tunable heater controller coupled to the plurality of spatially tunable heaters, the spatially tunable heater controller configured to independently control an output one of the plurality of spatially tunable heaters relative to another of the plurality of spatially tunable heaters.

First claim

Opening claim text (preview).

We claim: 1. A substrate support assembly, comprising: a body having a substrate support formed therein; a heater assembly formed underlying the substrate support and comprising one or more main resistive heaters embedded in the body and thermally coupled to a plurality of tunable heaters disposed in a corresponding plurality of cells in the body, wherein each cell has sidewalls comprising gaps or materials acting as thermal chokes between adjacent cells to reduce thermal conduction between the adjacent tunable heaters; a controller coupled to the plurality of tunable heaters, the controller configured to independently control an output for each tunable heater relative another of the tunable heaters, wherein the controller comprises: an electrical controller, wherein the electrical controller is configured to provide individually controllable power to each tunable heater; and an optical controller optically connected to an external controller and configured to transmit instructions to the electrical controller for powering each tunable heater. 2. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the body is an electrostatic chuck. 3. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the controller has an RF filter isolating the controller from the tunable heaters. 4. The substrate support assembly of claim 3 , further comprising: a fiber optic interface coupling the optical controller to the electrical controller wherein the optical interface is not subject to electromagnetic interference or radio frequency (RF) energy. 5. The substrate support assembly of claim 4 , wherein fiber optic interface is a fiber optic cable. 6. The substrate support assembly of claim 4 , wherein the electrical controller further comprises: an optical converter is coupled to the optical controller, wherein the optical converter is configured to provide signals controlling the function of the tunable heaters from the optical controller. 7. The substrate support assembly of claim 4 , wherein the optical controller controls the temperature by adjusting the power parameters for each individual tunable heater. 8. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the controller is internal to the body. 9. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the controller is external to the body. 10. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the electrical controller further comprises: a plurality of switches, wherein each switch accepts a positive power lead to control individual tunable heaters. 11. The substrate support assembly of claim 10 , wherein the optical controller manages the switches via a fiber optic interface to the electrical controller.

Assignees

Inventors

Classifications

  • Temperature monitoring · CPC title

  • mainly by conduction · CPC title

  • using electrostatic chucks · CPC title

  • H10P72/722Primary

    Details of electrostatic chucks · CPC title

  • Industrial applications · CPC title

Patent family

Related publications grouped by family.

External sources

Frequently asked questions

Answers are generated from the same data shown on this page.

What does patent US10535544B2 cover?
Implementations described herein provide a substrate support assembly which enables both lateral and azimuthal tuning of the heat transfer between an electrostatic chuck and a heating assembly. The substrate support assembly comprises a body having a substrate support surface and a lower surface, one or more main resistive heaters disposed in the body, a plurality of spatially tunable heaters d…
Who is the assignee on this patent?
Applied Materials Inc
What technology area does this patent fall under?
Primary CPC classification H10P72/0432. Mapped technology areas include Electricity.
When was this patent published?
Publication date Tue Jan 14 2020 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) (B2). Legal status and post-grant events are not shown on this page.
What related patents are in patentsdb?
We list 9 related publications on this page (citations in our corpus or others sharing the same primary CPC).