Substrate removing method and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8964350-B2
Application number	US-201213434263-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2012
Priority date	Mar 30, 2011
Publication date	Feb 24, 2015
Grant date	Feb 24, 2015

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus includes an electrostatic chuck enclosing an electrostatic electrode plate and a chamber having a ground potential and housing the electrostatic chuck. DC discharge is generated between a wafer and the chamber by setting the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate of the electrostatic chuck which is maintained at a first predetermined potential during a plasma etching process to a ground potential after the plasma etching process to increase the absolute value of the potential difference between the wafer and the chamber. DC discharge is then re-generated by applying, to the electrostatic electrode plate, DC voltage having the same potential as a second predetermined potential which is generated at the wafer after the DC discharge is generated, and by increasing the absolute value of the potential difference between the wafer and the chamber. The wafer is then easily removed from the electrostatic chuck.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate removing method comprising:
providing a substrate processing apparatus including an electrostatic chuck made of a dielectric material enclosing an electrostatic electrode plate to which DC voltage is applied, and a chamber having a ground potential and housing the electrostatic chuck on which a substrate is placed to be electrostatically adsorbed by the electrostatic chuck, and a plasma process is performed on the substrate;
maintaining the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate after the plasma process is completed at a first predetermined potential which is the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate during the plasma process;
setting the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate to the ground potential to increase the absolute value of the potential difference between the substrate and the chamber thereby generating DC discharge between the substrate and the chamber;
applying, to the electrostatic electrode plate, DC voltage having the same potential as a second predetermined potential which is generated on the substrate after the DC discharge is generated at the setting to increase the absolute value of the potential difference between the substrate and the chamber again thereby re-generating DC discharge between the substrate and the chamber such that there exists substantially no potential difference between the substrate and the electrostatic electrode plate;
re-setting the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate to the ground potential such that there exists substantially no potential difference between the substrate and the chamber; and
removing the substrate from the electrostatic chuck while there exists substantially no potential difference between the substrate and the chamber.

2. The substrate removing method of claim 1 , wherein a pressure in the chamber at the re-generating DC discharge process is at least 13.3 Pa (100 mTorr) or more.

3. The substrate removing method of claim 1 , wherein the potential of the DC voltage applied to the electrostatic electrode plate before the plasma processing is 1,000 V or more.

4. The substrate removing method of claim 3 , wherein the potential of the DC voltage applied to the electrostatic electrode plate before the plasma processing is 2,000 V or more.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed, causes a computer to perform a substrate removing method comprising:
providing a substrate processing apparatus including an electrostatic chuck made of a dielectric material enclosing an electrostatic electrode plate to which DC voltage is applied, and a chamber having a ground potential and housing the electrostatic chuck on which a substrate is placed to be electrostatically adsorbed by the electrostatic chuck, and a plasma process is performed on the substrate;
maintaining the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate after the plasma process is completed at a first predetermined potential which is the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate during the plasma process;
setting the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate to the ground potential to increase the absolute value of the potential difference between the substrate and the chamber thereby generating DC discharge between the substrate and the chamber;
applying, to the electrostatic electrode plate, DC voltage having the same potential as a second predetermined potential which is generated at the substrate after the DC discharge is generated at the setting to increase the absolute value of the potential difference between the substrate and the chamber again thereby re-generating DC discharge between the substrate and the chamber such that there exists substantially no potential difference between the substrate and the electrostatic electrode plate;
re-setting the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate to the ground potential such that there exists substantially no potential difference between the substrate and the chamber; and
removing the substrate from the electrostatic chuck while there exists substantially no potential difference between the substrate and the chamber.

Assignees

• Yamawaku Jun
• Yamazawa Yohei
• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Yamawaku Jun
• Yamazawa Yohei

Classifications

• H10P72/722 Primary

  Details of electrostatic chucks · CPC title

• H01L21/6833 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic