Substrate carrier with array of independently controllable heater elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12406865-B2
Application number	US-202117365931-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 1, 2021
Priority date	Aug 19, 2016
Publication date	Sep 2, 2025
Grant date	Sep 2, 2025

Abstract

A substrate carrier is described with an array of independently controllable heater elements. In one example an apparatus includes a substrate carrier to carry a substrate for processing, a plurality of resistive heating elements in the carrier to heat the substrate by heating the carrier, a power supply to supply power to the heating elements, a power controller to provide a control signal, the control signal to control an amount of current applied to each of the heating elements, and a plurality of power interfaces in the carrier each coupled to a heating element to receive the power from the power supply and the control signal from the controller and to modulate the power applied to a respective coupled heating element in response to the control signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
supplying power to a plurality of heating elements from a common power supply, the heating elements being in a substrate support to heat a substrate by heating the substrate support, the substrate support to carry the substrate during processing;
generating a control signal from a power controller to control an amount of current applied to each of the heating elements;
receiving the power from the power supply at each of a plurality of power interfaces in the substrate support each coupled to a heating element;
receiving the control signal at each of the plurality of power interfaces, the receiving comprising receiving the control signal from the power controller at a carrier controller embedded in the substrate support, wherein the control signal is a serial packetized control signal and generating a unique control signal to each heating interface from the carrier controller; and
modulating the power applied to a respective coupled heating element by a respective power interface in response to the control signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving instructions at the power controller from a program operating on a terminal to change a power modulation to a heating element of the plurality of heating elements and changing the control signal at the power controller in response to a received instruction.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control signal from the power controller is an optical signal.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring a voltage of the common power supply;
measuring a current of the common power supply;
generating a control signal to change a power state of a selected one of the heating elements;
measuring a current of the common power supply after changing the power state;
determining a difference of the first and second current measurement; and
determining a temperature of the selected one of the heating elements using the determined current measurement difference.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate support is a chuck.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the chuck is an electrostatic chuck.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Babayan Steven E
• Criminale Phillip
• Guo Zhiqiang

Classifications

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0421

  for drying etching · CPC title

• H10P72/0432 Primary

  mainly by conduction · CPC title

• H05B2203/035

  Electrical circuits used in resistive heating apparatus · CPC title

• H05B1/0233

  for semiconductors manufacturing · CPC title