Electrostatic chuck prepared by additive manufacturing, and related methods and structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12322634-B2
Application number	US-202117558381-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2021
Priority date	Dec 31, 2020
Publication date	Jun 3, 2025
Grant date	Jun 3, 2025

Abstract

Described are electrostatic chucks that are useful to support a workpiece during a step of processing the workpiece, and electrostatic chuck base components prepared by an additive manufacturing technique.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A chuck base comprising:
an upper chuck base surface made of an inorganic composite,
a lower chuck base surface made of the inorganic composite,
an interior portion between the upper chuck base surface and the lower chuck base surface, made of the inorganic composite, and
channels within the interior portion, formed by the inorganic composite, the upper chuck base surface, the lower chuck base surface, and the interior portion including a continuous layer of the inorganic composite that extends from the upper chuck base surface to the lower chuck base surface,
wherein at least one of the upper chuck base surface and the lower chuck base surface has a surface roughness that is less than 50 microns.

2. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein the continuous layer of the inorganic composite is seamless, and wherein the inorganic composite is uniform in composition.

3. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein the channels have cross sections that are selected from circular, triangular, dome-shaped, hexagonal, or teardrop-shaped.

4. The chuck base of claim 1 wherein at least one of the upper chuck base surface, lower chuck base surface or the interior portion of the chuck base has a density of at least 99.6 percent.

5. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein the channels are interconnected.

6. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein the inorganic material has a coefficient of thermal expansion in a range from 5×10 −6 m/(m K) to 10×10 −6 m/(m K).

7. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein the inorganic material is an aluminum alloy.

8. The chuck base of claim 6 , wherein the aluminum alloy is AlSiMg.

9. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein the inorganic material is a titanium alloy.

10. The chuck base of claim 8 , wherein the titanium alloy is Ti 6 Al 4 V.

11. The chuck base of claim 1 , wherein inorganic material at an interior portion has an apparent density of less than 99.6 percent.

12. A method of forming a chuck base by additive manufacturing, the method comprising:
forming a lower portion of the chuck base that includes a continuous bottom surface, by additive manufacturing,
forming a middle portion of the chuck base that includes cooling channels, over the lower portion of the chuck base, by additive manufacturing, and
forming an upper portion of the chuck base that includes a continuous upper surface, over the middle portion of the chuck base, by additive manufacturing.

13. The method of claim 12 , comprising:
forming the lower portion of the chuck base by additive manufacturing includes forming multiple first fine layers, each first fine layers having a first fine layer thickness,
forming the middle portion of the chuck base by additive manufacturing includes forming multiple coarse layers, each coarse layer having a coarse layer thickness that is greater than the fine layer thickness, and
forming the upper portion of the chuck base by additive manufacturing includes forming multiple second fine layers, each second fine layers having a second fine layer thickness.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein
each of the first fine layer thickness and the second fine layer thickness is less than 40 microns, and
the coarse layer thickness is greater than 60 microns.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
at least one of chuck base surfaces has a surface roughness that is less than 50 microns,
at least the upper portion of the chuck base or the lower portion of the chuck base has an apparent density of at least 99.6 percent, or
both.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the inorganic material at the middle portion of the chuck base has an apparent density of less than 99.6 percent.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the lower portion of the chuck base, the middle portion of the chuck base, and the upper portion of the chuck base include a same composite.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the lower portion of the chuck base, the middle portion of the chuck base, and the upper portion of the chuck base are seamlessly connected.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the lower portion of the chuck base, the middle portion of the chuck base, and the upper portion of the chuck base are formed in one continuous additive manufacturing process using a composite.

Assignees

• Entegris Inc

Inventors

• Venkatraman Chandra
• Sirignano Scott
• Liu Yan
• Guddati Subhash
• Perumal Thines Kumar
• Leavy Montray
• Rybczynski Jakub
• Waldfried Carlo

Classifications

• H10P72/722 Primary

  Details of electrostatic chucks · CPC title

• H10P72/0434

  mainly by convection · CPC title

• H02N13/00

  Clutches or holding devices using electrostatic attraction, e.g. using Johnson-Rahbek effect · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• B33Y70/00

  Materials specially adapted for additive manufacturing · CPC title