Apparatus and methods for motor shaft and heater leveling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12018376-B2
Application number	US-202017024946-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2020
Priority date	Sep 19, 2019
Publication date	Jun 25, 2024
Grant date	Jun 25, 2024

Abstract

Process chambers and methods for leveling a motor shaft and substrate support plane are described. The process chamber includes a motor shaft connected to the process chamber with a plurality of motor bolts. A first plurality of sensors is arranged at about the same radial distance from the rotational axis and at different angular positions relative to the rotational axis and a second plurality of sensors are arranged to measure the support plane. An angle-dependent motor leveling profile is determined and shim values for the motor bolts are determined to level the motor shaft. The support plane is measured using the second plurality of sensors to level the support plane perpendicular to the motor shaft.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process chamber comprising:
a chamber body having a bottom and sidewalls defining an interior volume;
a motor shaft extending through the bottom of the chamber body defining a rotational axis, the motor shaft connected to a motor assembly connected to the bottom of the chamber body outside the interior volume, the motor assembly comprising a plurality of motor bolts;
a substrate support having a support plane connected to the motor shaft within the interior volume;
a first plurality of sensors arranged at about the same radial distance from the rotational axis and at different angular positions relative to the rotational axis; and
a second plurality of sensors arranged to measure an angle of the support plane with respect to the rotational axis of the motor shaft.

2. The process chamber of claim 1 , wherein the substrate support comprises a plurality of heater supports in a top plate, each of heater support having a heater support plane exposed through an opening in the top plate.

3. The process chamber of claim 2 , wherein the first plurality of sensors are arranged to measure a distance between the first plurality of sensors and the top plate.

4. The process chamber of claim 3 , wherein the second plurality of sensors are arranged to measure an angle of one heater support plane with respect to the rotational axis of the motor shaft.

5. The process chamber of claim 4 , further comprising a controller connected to the motor shaft, first plurality of sensors and second plurality of sensors and having one or more configurations selected from: a configuration to rotate the substrate support to an angular position; a configuration to obtain measurements from each of the first plurality of sensors; and a configuration to obtain measurements from each of the second plurality of sensors.

6. The process chamber of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to determine an angle dependent motor leveling profile for each of the first plurality of sensors.

7. The process chamber of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to determine shim values for motor bolts based on the angle dependent motor leveling profiles of the at least three sensors.

8. The process chamber of claim 5 , wherein the second plurality of sensors are arranged within a process station within the process chamber and the controller is configured to rotate the substrate support to position a heater support within the process station and determine an equation of the heater support plane and repeat to determine an equation of each of the heater support planes.

9. The process chamber of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to determine a shim value to level the support plane based on the equations of the heater support planes.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Agarwal Ashutosh
• Ulavi Tejas
• Baluja Sanjeev

Classifications

• H10P72/7621 Primary

  characterised by supporting two or more semiconductor substrates · CPC title

• H10P72/7618

  characterised by a movable susceptor, stage or support, others than those only rotating on their own vertical axis, e.g. susceptors on a rotating carrousel · CPC title

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0432

  mainly by conduction · CPC title

• H10P72/7626

  characterised by the construction of the shaft · CPC title