CN115516599A

CN115516599A - System apparatus and method for using light irradiation to enhance electronic clamping of substrates

Info

Publication number: CN115516599A
Application number: CN202180031025.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈勤; 朱利安·G·布雷克; 麦可·W·奥斯邦; 史蒂芬·M·恩尔拉; 乔纳森·D·菲斯契尔
Original assignee: Applied Materials Inc
Current assignee: Applied Materials Inc
Priority date: 2020-05-21
Filing date: 2021-05-07
Publication date: 2022-12-23
Also published as: TWI774373B; KR20230008864A; TW202203368A; JP2023526602A; WO2021236356A1

Abstract

A method may include: providing a substrate on a fixture; and emitting radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the chuck during substrate processing, wherein the radiation is characterized by a radiation energy, wherein at least a portion of the radiation energy is equal to or greater than 2.5eV.

Description

System apparatus and method for using light irradiation to enhance electronic clamping of substrates

Technical Field

The present embodiments relate to substrate processing, and more particularly, to electrostatic chucks for holding substrates.

Background

Substrate holders such as electrostatic chucks (also known as electrostatic chucks) are widely used in many manufacturing processes, including semiconductor manufacturing, solar cell manufacturing, and the processing of other components. Electrostatic clamping utilizes the principle of electrostatic induction in which electron charges are redistributed in an object by the direct influence of nearby charges. For example, a positively charged object near a charge neutral substrate will induce a negative charge on the surface of the substrate. This charge creates an attractive force between the object and the substrate. For clamping of conductive and semiconductor substrates with relatively low bulk resistivity, redistribution of charge is easily achieved by applying a voltage to electrodes embedded in an insulator adjacent to the conductive substrate. Accordingly, electrostatic chucks have been widely used to hold semiconductor substrates, such as silicon wafers having a relatively low bulk resistivity.

One type of electrostatic clamp applies an Alternating Current (AC) voltage to create clamping, thereby enabling rapid clamping and de-clamping of a conductive or low resistivity semiconductor substrate. However, known Direct Current (DC) electrostatic clamps or AC electrostatic clamps are ineffective in clamping high resistivity semiconductor substrates or electrically insulating substrates.

In addition, substrate charging issues may adversely affect substrate processing (particularly for high resistance substrates), such as when ion implantation is performed. In addition to electrostatic clamps, non-electrostatic clamps, such as mechanical clamps, may contain conductive lift pins (lift pins), ground pins (ground pins), wherein the operation of such pins may be compromised when the substrate being clamped has a high resistance. In addition, in ion implantation devices, charge build-up (charge build-up) on the substrate during implantation may require the use of charge compensation, such as an electron flood gun (electron flood gun), to counteract charging of the substrate.

The present disclosure is provided with respect to these and other considerations.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In one embodiment, a method may comprise: providing a substrate on a fixture; and emitting radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the holder during substrate processing, wherein the radiation comprises radiation energy, wherein at least a portion of the radiation energy is equal to or greater than 2.5eV.

In another embodiment, a method may comprise: providing a substrate on an electrostatic chuck; emitting radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic chuck; and applying an AC clamping voltage to the electrostatic clamp while the radiation impinges on the substrate, wherein the radiation comprises a radiation energy equal to or greater than 2.5eV.

In yet another embodiment, a method may comprise: providing a substrate on an electrostatic chuck; applying a clamping voltage to the electrostatic clamp to clamp the substrate; and processing the substrate while the substrate is held by the electrostatic chuck. The method may further comprise: after the processing, removing the clamping voltage from the electrostatic clamp, and emitting an illumination (exposure) of dechucking radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic clamp, wherein the dechucking radiation includes dechucking radiation energy that is equal to or higher than a threshold energy for generating mobile charges in the substrate.

Drawings

Figure 1 illustrates an electrostatic clamp apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1A shows a fixture apparatus according to other embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1B shows an example of electrostatic clamping.

Figure 2 illustrates a side view of an electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 3 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 4 illustrates a side view of yet another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 5 illustrates a side view of yet another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 6 illustrates a side view of an additional electrostatic clamp arrangement according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 7 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7B and 7C illustrate the geometry of a scanned radiation beam according to two different embodiments.

Figure 8 illustrates a side view of yet another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 9 illustrates a side view of an additional electrostatic clamp arrangement according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 10 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 11 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 12 illustrates a side view of yet another electrostatic clamp arrangement according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 13 shows a side view of a processing system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 14 shows the relationship between the radiation wavelength and the energy.

Fig. 15 illustrates an example control system for electrostatic clamping according to some embodiments.

Fig. 16 shows the relationship between the charge time and the resistivity for different substrate types.

Fig. 17 shows an exemplary irradiance (irradiance) profile of a radiation source suitable for use in the electrostatic clamp apparatus of the present embodiment.

FIG. 18 shows generation of photocurrent with SiO ₂ Of the radiation energy.

Figure 19 illustrates another exemplary irradiance profile for a radiation source suitable for use in the electrostatic clamp apparatus of the present embodiment.

Fig. 20 illustrates an exemplary process flow.

Fig. 21 illustrates another exemplary process flow.

FIG. 22 shows yet another exemplary process flow.

Fig. 23 shows an additional exemplary process flow.

Fig. 24 illustrates another exemplary process flow.

Fig. 25 illustrates an embodiment of a processing system.

Detailed Description

The present embodiments provide devices and techniques for increasing substrate chucking capability. In various embodiments, clamping devices and processing systems suitable for clamping various substrates, including high resistivity substrates, are disclosed. Various embodiments employ radiation sources capable of producing radiation in the visible as well as shorter wavelengths, including wavelengths in the Ultraviolet (UV) range and in the Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) range (< 200 nm). Accordingly, various embodiments provide what may be referred to as photo-assisted electronic clamping and release of various substrates, including irradiating the substrate with radiation before, during, and after clamping.

Fig. 1 illustrates an electrostatic clamp system 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The electrostatic clamp system 100 may be deployed in any suitable environment in which a substrate is clamped for any suitable purpose. In various embodiments, the electrostatic clamp system 100 may be disposed in the substrate chamber 102 to accommodate the substrate 112. In various non-limiting embodiments, the substrate chamber 102 may represent a loading chamber that loads the substrate 112 into the system, a transfer chamber that transfers the substrate 112 between locations, or a process chamber in which the substrate 112 is to undergo at least one process. Suitable process chambers include chambers for layer deposition on substrate 112, for etching of substrate 112, for heating of substrate 112, for ion implantation into substrate 112, or for other suitable processes.

As shown in fig. 1, the electrostatic clamp system 100 may include a clamp apparatus 104, the clamp apparatus 104 including an electrostatic clamp assembly 114. The electrostatic clamp assembly 114 may comprise known components of known electrostatic clamps, including cooling blocks (cooling blocks), heaters, gas passages, electrodes, wiring, and the like. For clarity, only general components of the electrostatic chuck assembly 114 are shown. As shown in fig. 1, the electrostatic chuck assembly 114 may include an insulator portion 108 directly supporting a substrate 112 and an electrode assembly (electrode assembly) 110 applying a voltage to the insulator portion 108. In various embodiments, the electrode assembly 110 may include at least one electrode and may be operable to apply a DC voltage or an AC voltage. In some embodiments, the electrostatic chuck system 100 may be used as a known electrostatic chuck for clamping low resistivity substrates.

As further shown in FIG. 1, the fixture apparatus 104 may also include an illumination system 106, the illumination system 106 being configured to emit radiation (shown as radiation 120) to the substrate 112. According to various embodiments, radiation 120 may be characterized by a radiation energy that is equal to or higher than a threshold energy for generating mobile charges in substrate 112. In this manner, the irradiation system 106 may generate radiation 120 while the clamping voltage is applied to the electrostatic clamp assembly 114. Thus, in operation and referring to fig. 1B, when substrate 112 is clamped by electrostatic clamp assembly 114, the charge present in substrate 112 can move over the electrodes of electrode assembly 110 in opposite polarity to generate a high electric field and generate a large clamping force.

It should be noted that the time required for such charge movement depends on the resistivity of substrate 112, as shown in fig. 16. The range of resistivities and the response times of charges for different types of commonly used substrates are shown in fig. 16. The response time is shown for a substrate clamped using a clamping voltage without application of the illumination system 106. The substrate, referred to as a "conventional Si wafer," represents a range of resistivity for relatively low resistance silicon wafers (showing resistivity in the range of about 1Ohm-cm to 1000 Ohm-cm). In this example, the response time is approximately 1 μ s to 100 μ s. The rise time and clamping cycle of the AC clamp are also shown in fig. 16. As shown, this rise time is consistent with the response time of a conventional silicon wafer. Fig. 16 also shows response times of charges in a High Bulk Resistivity (HBR) silicon wafer (hbrsi wafer), an HBR silicon carbide wafer (HBR SiC), and a glass substrate. It should be noted that in the case of glass substrates, the bulk resistivity of these other substrates extends beyond 10 seconds to 2 seconds up to 108 seconds. These longer response times mean that charge cannot move within the substrates within a time period consistent with the application of the AC voltage. In addition, even with the application of DC voltages, the response time is too slow for practical processing purposes, especially for HBR SiC and glass.

When the resistivity of the substrate 112 is too high, the charge cannot move fast enough to establish a clamping force when the clamping voltage is applied by the electrostatic clamp assembly 114. The charging time, which may be on the order of seconds to minutes in duration, is virtually unlimited for an insulating substrate, such as a glass wafer, as compared to the time scale associated with holding and processing substrate 112. As such, without the use of the illumination system 106, substantially no substrate charge is generated in response to the applied clamping voltage, such that the clamping force is nearly zero.

Accordingly, with the use of the chucking device 104, a substrate including an HBR semiconductor wafer and glass can be chucked. In addition to addressing the chucking problem of high resistivity substrates, the clamp device 104 helps address another problem of generating undesirable charges on high resistivity substrates, where removal of such charges would otherwise cause damage to the high resistivity substratesFor example, due to triboelectricity. The chucking device 104 additionally facilitates dechucking of the substrate by creating a moving charge on the substrate 112. The high resistivity of the insulating material arises from different factors. First, these materials typically have very large electronic bandgaps. For example, for silicon oxide (e.g. SiO) ₂ ) The band gap is approximately 8eV. Unlike dopants in semiconductors, impurities in insulators also have much higher ionization energies. Therefore, the mobile charge concentration in such a substrate is very low. Second, many common insulating materials are amorphous (e.g., silica glass). The lack of a periodic crystalline structure results in relatively low charge mobility. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the conductivity of a high resistivity substrate (e.g., glass) may be significantly enhanced by transferring sufficient energy into electrons of the high resistivity material such that the electrons enter a so-called extended state in the conduction band with the application of radiation 120. For narrow bandgap semiconductors containing Si, low energy photons (e.g., photons in infrared radiation) provide enough energy to overcome the bandgap. For wide band gap semiconductor materials such as SiC, long wavelength UV radiation (315 nm to 400 nm) may provide enough to overcome the band gap and generate charge carriers. For such a range of wavelengths, in various non-limiting embodiments, the illumination system 106 may be implemented as a light source, including a laser diode, a light-emitting diode (LED), an arc lamp, or other source.

According to additional embodiments, other types of radiation sources may be used with the illumination system 106 for substrates commonly referred to as insulating substrates (e.g., glass substrates), as set forth in further detail below. In general, the illumination system 106 will be arranged to provide radiation 120 with sufficient energy to generate mobile charges for the type of substrate used as the substrate 112. However, in various non-limiting embodiments, the illumination system 106 can be configured to hold at least the following substrate types: 1) Conventional silicon wafer: resistivity <1000ohm-cm; 2) High resistivity silicon/silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer: a resistivity of 1000ohm-cm to 100,000ohm-cm; 3) Silicon carbide wafer: useful resistivities are up to 1E9 ohm-cm; and 4) glass: resistivity >1E12 ohm-cm; 5) Silicon on glass.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, illumination system 106 is arranged to provide illumination to a major surface of substrate 112 (including front surface 112A on the front side or back surface 112B on the back side). According to various embodiments, the radiation 120 may be provided directly in a line-of-sight (line-of-sight) manner, the radiation 120 may be provided by reflection, the radiation 120 may be provided by blanket illumination of the substrate, by scanning an illumination source, or a combination of the methods. Ideally, high intensity uniform light illumination over the entire substrate would be useful. Due to limitations on the configuration of the light source and the electrostatic chucking device, certain embodiments provide novel configurations to maximize the efficiency of light generation in the substrate. In the embodiments illustrated in fig. 2-8 below, a different electrostatic clamp system is shown, in which a substrate table 202 is shown, which may comprise an electrostatic clamp as generally set forth above with respect to fig. 1.

Turning to FIG. 1A, a fixture apparatus 150 is shown according to additional embodiments of the present disclosure. In this case, the clamp apparatus 150 includes a mechanical clamp 154 (optionally including a stand off 156) to hold the substrate 112 using any suitable mechanical components. The fixture apparatus 150 includes the illumination system 106 described above. In operation, radiation 120 may be emitted to the substrate 112 while the substrate 112 is held by the mechanical chuck 154 to increase mobile charge in the substrate 112 and aid in processing of the substrate, such as providing better conductivity between the substrate 112 and lift pins or ground pins (not separately shown) or by reducing surface charging of the substrate 112.

Figure 2 illustrates a side view of an electrostatic clamp system 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, illumination system 201 is positioned to emit radiation 208 to the front surface of substrate 112. Although in some embodiments substrate table 202 may be fixed, in other embodiments substrate table 202 may include a scanning assembly (e.g., a known scanning assembly (not shown)) to scan substrate 112 in at least one direction. Also, in some embodiments, the radiation 208 may be provided as a fixed beam, the beam being arranged to cover the entire substrate. In some embodiments, in which substrate table 202 is arranged to scan a substrate, e.g., along a Y-axis of a Cartesian coordinate system (Cartesian coordinate system) as shown, radiation 208 may be provided in a manner that covers the entire scanning range of substrate 112, as shown in FIG. 2. For example, the illumination system 201 may include components referred to as illumination sources 204, including components that generate radiation 208 with suitable energy to generate photo-carriers in the substrate 112, with examples of different illumination sources being set forth in detail below. The illumination source 204 may generate radiation as a beam having a particular size. In some embodiments, the beam emitted by the illumination source 204 may be large enough or expandable to become large enough to cover the substrate 112.

In other embodiments, the illumination system 201 may further include an optical system 206 disposed between the illumination source 204 and the substrate 112 to expand the beam of radiation received from the illumination source 204 and expand the beam of radiation used to generate the radiation 208 to cover the entire substrate 112. An example of an optical system suitable for optical system 206 is a set of refractive optics (e.g., optical lenses). In this and the following embodiments, an "optical system" will provide the capability to treat radiation in the UV range, which means that refractive optics will mean optics for refracting UV radiation, and mirror optics will be adapted to reflect UV radiation.

Figure 3 illustrates a side view of an electrostatic clamp system 220, according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, illumination system 211 is positioned differently to emit radiation 212 onto the front surface of substrate 112. Although in some embodiments, substrate table 202 may be fixed, in other embodiments substrate table 202 may include a scanning assembly (e.g., a known scanning assembly (not shown)) to scan substrate 112 in at least one direction. Also, in some embodiments, the radiation 212 may be provided as a fixed beam, the beam being arranged to cover the entire substrate. In some embodiments, in which substrate table 202 is arranged to scan a substrate, e.g., along the Y-axis of a Cartesian coordinate system as shown, radiation 212 may be provided in a manner that covers the entire scanning range of substrate 112, as shown in FIG. 3. For example, the illumination system 211 may include the illumination source 204 discussed above with respect to fig. 2. The illumination source 204 may generate radiation as a beam having a particular size. In such a configuration, the illumination source 204 may emit radiation as a beam that is not initially emitted toward the substrate 112. The illumination system 211 may also include an optical system 210, the optical system 210 being arranged to reflect the beam generated by the illumination source 204 and to emit the reflected beam as radiation 212 to the substrate 112. The optical system 210 may include an optical mirror, and in some embodiments, the optical mirror may be arranged as an expanding mirror to expand the radiation beam received from the illumination source 204, reflect, and expand the radiation beam used to generate the radiation 212 to cover the entire substrate 112. In additional embodiments, the illumination system may include a combination of refractive and mirror optics. The selection of optics for illumination may be guided by consideration of the spacing and placement of the elements and the efficiency of producing illumination of the cover substrate 112.

Figure 4 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp system 250, in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, the electrostatic clamp system 250 may include the substrate table 202 and the illumination source 204 generally described above. The electrostatic clamp system 250 may additionally include an illumination system 251 having an optical system 252, the electrostatic clamp system 250 differing from the embodiment shown in fig. 2 in that the optical system 252 includes components that provide scanning capability for the radiation beam received from the illumination source 204. The scanning capability may be provided by, for example, a motorized component. According to various embodiments, the radiation 254 may be provided as a beam expanded from an initial beam size.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, optical system 252 provides beam scanning of radiation 254. In some embodiments, in configurations in which substrate 112 is scanned, optical system 252 may also scan the radiation to follow the scan of substrate 112. For example, illumination source 204 and optical system 252 may include refractive optics that generate radiation 254 as a beam having a width that covers substrate 112.

The optical system 252 may further be configured with a lens drive mechanism arranged to move the optical lens by rotation, translation, or both. For example, the optical system 252 may be further configured with a scanning component in which the radiation 254 is scanned in the same direction at the same rate as the substrate 112 is scanned along the Y-axis at a rate of 10cm per minute, such that the radiation 254 in any event covers the substrate 112. In this manner, the width of radiation 254 emitted to substrate 112 need not be significantly greater than the substrate width, even when substrate 112 is scanned, thus protecting other components in the remainder of the chamber housing substrate 112.

In other embodiments, the radiation 254 may be provided as a relatively narrow beam (e.g., a laser beam or a highly collimated incoherent beam) compared to the width of the substrate 112. This embodiment is represented by radiation beam 254A, radiation beam 254A being shown as having a much smaller width relative to the width of substrate 112, at least along the Y direction. In this embodiment, the optical system 252 may be provided with the following components: the assembly rapidly scans the radiation beam 254A along, for example, the Y-direction in a manner that provides even uniform irradiance so as to cover the entire substrate 112. In embodiments in which substrate 112 remains stationary, optical system 252 can therefore only scan radiation beam 254A in a rapid manner to produce a radiation umbrella that covers the stationary substrate.

Figure 5 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp system 260 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, the electrostatic chuck system 260 can include the substrate stage 202 and the illumination source 204 generally described above. The electrostatic clamp system 260 may additionally include an illumination system 261 having an optical system 262, the electrostatic clamp system 260 differing from the embodiment shown in fig. 3 in that the optical system 262 includes components that provide scanning capability for the radiation beam received from the illumination source 204. The scanning capability may be provided by, for example, a motorized assembly. According to various embodiments, radiation 264 may be provided as a beam expanded from an initial beam size.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, optical system 262 provides beam scanning of radiation 264. In some embodiments, in configurations in which substrate 112 is scanned, optical system 262 may also scan the radiation to follow the scan of substrate 112. For example, the illumination source 204 and the optical system 262 may include reflective optics (e.g., a UV mirror) that generate the radiation 264 as a beam having a width that covers the substrate 112. Optical system 262 may be further configured with a scanning assembly in which radiation 264 is scanned in the same direction at the same rate as substrate 112 is scanned along the Y-axis at a given rate so that radiation 264 covers substrate 112 in any event. In this manner, the width of radiation 264 emitted to substrate 112 need not be significantly greater than the substrate width, even when substrate 112 is scanned, and therefore protects other components in the remainder of the chamber housing substrate 112.

In other embodiments, the radiation from the illumination beam may be provided as a relatively narrow beam (e.g., a laser beam or a highly collimated incoherent beam) compared to the width of the substrate 112. This embodiment is represented by the electrostatic clamping system 270 shown in fig. 6. Substrate table 202 may be configured as in the previously described embodiments. In this embodiment, the illumination system 271 includes an illumination source 272 that produces a narrow beam, which is shown as having a much smaller width relative to the width of the substrate 112, at least along the Y-direction. Illumination source 272 may be a laser source or a collimated incoherent light source. In this embodiment, the optical system 274 may be provided with a refractive component to receive and transmit the beam emitted from the illumination source 272 as a narrow beam, shown as radiation beam 276, and to scan the radiation beam 276 along, for example, the Y direction in a manner that provides an average uniform irradiance to cover the entire substrate 112.

In embodiments where the substrate 112 remains stationary, the optical system 274 may therefore only scan the radiation beam 276 in a fast manner to produce a radiation umbrella 278 covering the stationary substrate. In other embodiments, in which substrate 112 is also scanned along the Y-axis, for example, optical system 274 may include components that both rapidly scan beam 276 across substrate 112 and slowly shift the average position of beam 276 in synchronization with substrate movement. In this manner, radiation 264 produces a radiation umbrella 278, the dimension of radiation umbrella 278 along the Y-axis closely corresponds or matches the dimension of the substrate along the Y-axis, and the position of radiation umbrella 278 is arranged such that radiation umbrella 278 overlies the entire substrate 112 or a desired portion of substrate 112 while not extending beyond substrate 112. More generally, electrostatic clamping system 270 may include a synchronization component to synchronize movement of the optical lens with movement of the substrate table scanner (shown with a double arrow) so that the radiation beam remains aligned with the front side of substrate 112 during scanning of substrate 112. Another embodiment in which the radiation beam is provided as a scanned narrow beam is shown in fig. 7. This embodiment is represented by an electrostatic clamping system 280, in which the substrate table 202 may be configured as in the previously described embodiments. In this embodiment, the illumination system 281 may include an illumination source 272 that produces a narrow beam, as described above with respect to fig. 6. In this embodiment, the optical system 284 may be provided with the following components: the assembly reflects the beam emitted from illumination source 272 as a narrow beam (shown as radiation beam 286) and scans radiation beam 286 along, for example, the Y-direction in a manner that provides an average uniform irradiance to cover the entire substrate 112.

In embodiments in which substrate 112 remains stationary, optical system 284 can therefore only scan radiation beam 286 in a fast manner (e.g., causing the mirror to move or rotate quickly) to create a radiation umbrella 288 that covers the stationary substrate. In other embodiments, where substrate 112 is also scanned, e.g., along the Y-axis, optical system 284 can include components that both rapidly scan beam 286 across substrate 112 and slowly shift the average position of beam 286 in synchronization with the movement of the substrate. In this manner, the radiation 264 produces a radiation umbrella 288, the dimensions of the radiation umbrella 288 along the Y-axis closely correspond or match the dimensions of the substrate along the Y-axis, and the position of the radiation umbrella 288 is arranged such that the radiation umbrella 288 overlies the entire substrate 112 or a desired portion of the substrate 112 while not extending beyond the substrate 112.

In various embodiments in which the optical system provides radiation to substrate 112 as a scanned narrow beam of radiation, the scanned beam of radiation can be provided as a spot beam or a ribbon beam in the plane of substrate 112 (which means in the X-Y plane, as shown). FIG. 7B shows an embodiment in which either beam 276 or beam 286 is provided as a ribbon beam elongated along the X-axis. The ribbon beam may have a length dimension comparable to the length of the substrate 112 along the X-axis, and thus may not be scanned along the X-axis, but only along the Y-axis, to produce the

radiation umbrella

278 or 288. FIG. 7C illustrates an embodiment in which radiation beam 276 or radiation beam 286 is provided as a spot beam that has a relatively small size compared to the width of substrate 112 along the X-axis, and thus can be scanned along both the X-axis and the Y-axis to create radiation umbrella 278 or radiation umbrella 288.

In additional embodiments, the electrostatic chuck system may include optics that combine a mirror assembly with a refractive assembly to emit the radiation beam to the substrate.

Figure 8 illustrates a side view of yet another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, an electrostatic clamp system 290 is shown that includes the substrate table set forth above. Unlike the previously described embodiments, the electrostatic clamp system 290 includes an illumination system 291 comprising a plurality of illumination sources. Two different illumination sources (shown as illumination source 204A and illumination source 204A) are included in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, where each illumination source may be configured similarly to illumination source 204 as previously described. However, in other embodiments, more than two illumination sources may be employed. In the configuration shown in fig. 8, the illumination system 291 comprises an optical system 292, the optical system 292 being arranged to emit two radiation beams to the substrate 112 using the mirror configurations of the mirror system 292A and the mirror system 292B to reflect radiation generated by the illumination source 204A and the illumination source 204B and shown as radiation 294A and radiation 294B, respectively. In a different variation, optical system 292 may operate similarly to the previous embodiments, e.g., shown in fig. 3, 5, or 7, with a wider beam being reflected to substrate 112, a narrower beam being reflected to the substrate, and providing a slow scan or a fast scan of the radiation beam as described above. The configuration shown in fig. 8 provides the advantage of being able to illuminate the substrate 112 more uniformly than if a single radiation beam was used. In other embodiments, multiple illumination sources may be coupled to a corresponding plurality of refractive optical systems (similar to the configurations shown in fig. 2, 4, and 6) to emit multiple radiation beams to substrate 112, or multiple illumination sources may be coupled to a combination of at least one refractive optical system and at least one mirror optical system. Such an embodiment may be useful for positioning an optical system within a given processing device, in cases where, for example, the configuration of other components, including the substrate table, and processing components may place limitations on the position of the other components.

One disadvantage of projecting radiation onto the front surface of the substrate is that photo-carriers tend to be generated near the front surface while clamping occurs on the back surface of the substrate. For high mobility materials, the generation of photogenerated charge carriers near the front surface is not problematic for clamping the substrate, since the carriers can traverse the substrate quickly, but for low mobility materials (e.g., glass), the charge carriers may take too long to reach the back side of the wafer. In further embodiments of the present disclosure, the illumination system may be arranged to emit illumination to the backside of the substrate.

Figure 9 illustrates a side view of an additional electrostatic clamp arrangement according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the electrostatic clamping system 300 is arranged with an illumination system 301, wherein at least a part of the illumination system 301 is embedded within a substrate table 302. It should be noted that the substrate table 302 may be configured similarly to the previous embodiments of the substrate table 202, and may include an electrostatic clamp and a scanning assembly for scanning the substrate table 302. The illumination system 301 may include a plurality of illumination sources (shown as illumination source 304, illumination source 306, and illumination source 308) distributed in various locations within the X-Y plane. In general, the different illumination sources may be distributed in a one-dimensional array or a two-dimensional array across the substrate table 302, wherein the substrate table includes an opening facing the substrate 112 to deliver radiation directly to the backside including the back surface 112B of the substrate 112 without obstruction. In other words, the gap between the substrate table 302 and the substrate 112 may act as a hollow light guide, so that radiation, e.g. UV light, is beyond the entry point.

Although the embodiment shown in fig. 9 illustrates an illumination system having multiple illumination sources, in other embodiments a single illumination source may be employed. Figure 10 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the electrostatic clamping system 310 is arranged with an illumination system 311, wherein a part of the illumination system 311 is embedded within the substrate table 312 and a part is located outside the substrate table 312. It should be noted that the substrate table 312 may be configured similarly to the previous embodiments of the substrate table 202 and may include an electrostatic clamp and a scanning assembly for scanning the substrate table 312. The illumination system 311 includes an illumination source 314, which may represent only one illumination source. The illumination source 314 is coupled to a plurality of light guides (optical guides) extending through the substrate table 312 so that radiation can be provided directly to the back surface 112B of the substrate 112. In general, the different light guides may be distributed in a one-dimensional array or a two-dimensional array across the substrate table 302, wherein the substrate table comprises a plurality of openings 319 facing the substrate 112 to convey radiation directly to the back surface 112B of the substrate 112 without obstruction. For simplicity, these light guides are shown as light guide 320, light guide 316, and light guide 318. As shown, the plurality of light guides are distally connected to the illumination source 314 and have proximal ends that extend through the plurality of openings 319, respectively.

The foregoing embodiments shown in fig. 9 and 10 thus provide an efficient way of directly coupling high energy radiation (e.g., UV radiation) to the substrate in a uniform manner.

Figure 11 illustrates a side view of another electrostatic clamp arrangement according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the electrostatic clamp system 350 includes a substrate table 352, the substrate table 352 having an illumination system 351 embedded within the substrate table 352. It should be noted that substrate table 352 may be configured similarly to the previous embodiments of substrate table 202 and may include an electrostatic clamp and a scanning assembly for scanning substrate table 352. The illumination system 351 includes an illumination source 354 embedded in the substrate table 352 and a set of coupling optics (shown as coupling optics 356) to receive radiation from the illumination source 354 and output radiation 358 in a direction that couples the radiation 358 to the back surface 112B of the substrate 112. As shown in fig. 11, a gap between substrate table 352 and substrate 112 may serve as a hollow light guide.

Although the foregoing embodiments of fig. 2-11 are described with respect to electrostatic chucks, in other embodiments, the illumination systems of fig. 2-11 can be implemented using mechanical chucks.

Figure 12 illustrates a side view of yet another electrostatic clamp apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the electrostatic chuck system 360 includes an illumination system 361 formed by an illumination source and an electrode assembly 368 disposed within the substrate table 362, the illumination system 361 being configured to emit radiation 366 toward a backside (see back surface 112B) of the substrate 112. It should be noted that the substrate table 362 can be configured to include an electrostatic clamp and a scanning assembly for scanning the substrate table 362. Unlike known electrostatic chucks, the substrate table assembly, including the electrostatic chuck assembly, can be formed of a material that is transparent to the radiation 366. For example, the dielectric material used for the stage assembly and electrostatic clamp (including the transparent platen body) and the cooling gas ejected into the substrate table 362 can be made of a material that is transparent to the UV light used to form the radiation 366.

As shown in fig. 12, radiation 366 may form a broad beam of radiation that covers most of substrate 112 or the entire substrate 112. In this embodiment, the electrostatic clamp portion (not separately shown) of the substrate table 362 includes an electrode assembly 368, the electrode assembly 368 being arranged as one or more electrodes in the form of a metal screen or mesh, wherein the transparency of the metal screen is high. In this manner, the metal mesh may serve as a uniform electrode system for electrostatic clamping while providing high transparency to UV radiation or other high energy radiation emitted by the radiation source 364.

In additional embodiments of the present disclosure, an electrostatic clamping system (including those disclosed with respect to fig. 1-12), or variations thereof, may be deployed in a substrate processing system to process a substrate. In some embodiments, an electrostatic clamping system is provided in a substrate processing chamber so that a substrate can be held while being processed. Figure 13 illustrates a side view of one such processing system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, the processing system 380 includes a process chamber 382, and the process chamber 382 may house various components of an electrostatic clamping system, including a substrate table 385 and an illumination system 391. In the illustrated configuration, the illumination system 391 includes reflective optics for front side illumination, while in other embodiments the illumination system may be based on refractive optics for front side illumination or may be based on back side illumination, with these various configurations being described in detail with respect to fig. 1-12. In this example, the illumination source 388 is disposed outside the substrate table 385. In various embodiments, the illumination source 388 may be disposed within the process chamber 382, partially within the process chamber 382, or outside the process chamber 382. In the example shown in fig. 12, the illumination source 388 emits the beam to the UV mirror 392, which UV mirror 392 reflects the beam to emit radiation 396 to the substrate 112. The geometric configurations of the illumination source 388, the UV mirror 392, and the substrate 112 are arranged to ensure that the source UV beam generated by the illumination source 388 is properly expanded to cover the substrate. Similar to some of the previous embodiments, a mirror drive mechanism may be incorporated and arranged to move an optical mirror, such as the UV mirror 392, by rotation, translation, or both. As shown in the embodiment of FIG. 13, the scan motor 390 is mechanically coupled to the UV mirror 392 to scan the UV mirror 392 in the manner described above for movement or scanning of the substrate 112. In some embodiments, a control system 398 coupled to UV mirror 392 and substrate table 394 is used to control the scanning of UV mirror 392 and substrate table 394 such that the expanded beam (radiation 396) follows the substrate in such a way that radiation 396 is largely or entirely intercepted by substrate 112. Thus, the control system 398 may generate scanning control and position sensing signals for controlling the substrate stage 394 and optical beam scanning control and position sensing signals for controlling the scanning motor 390 and the UV mirror 392.

The UV photons of radiation 396 are provided to generate enough mobile charges so that the substrate, even with a high bandgap above 2.5eV, can be adequately clamped by an electrostatic clamp (not separately shown) within substrate table 394.

The processing system 380 also includes a beam generation assembly 384 to eject the ion beam 386 into the process chamber 382. Ion beam 386 may implant ions into substrate 112 while substrate 112 is held in place by the action of an electrostatic chuck system comprising an illumination system 391 and an electrostatic chuck located within substrate table 394. Unlike known ion implantation systems, the processing system 380 can be conveniently implanted into a high resistance or insulating substrate, wherein the substrate is still electrostatically clamped to the substrate table.

Although the beam generation assembly 384 may represent a series of beamline assemblies for delivering an ion beam to a substrate in the embodiment shown in fig. 12, in other embodiments, the process systems of the previous embodiments, including the electrostatic clamping system, may be used to process a substrate for any suitable process (including film deposition, etching, heating, etc.).

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, the ability of the UV irradiation system or the high energy irradiation system to assist in electrostatic clamping of the high resistivity substrate may be enhanced using the control system 398 or a similar control system. It should be noted that depending on the configuration of the process chamber and the capabilities of the illumination source, the illumination of the substrate may need to be synchronized with the substrate scanning and the electronic clamping of the substrate to improve the effectiveness of the illumination. As previously described, the control system 398 may synchronize the UV beam scanning with the scanning of the substrate table when the substrate is irradiated with the scanning UV beam. Fig. 15 illustrates an example control system arrangement 400 for electrostatic clamping according to some embodiments. In this example, the controller 398A is coupled to various components of the electrostatic clamping system. For simplicity, illumination system 402 is shown projecting radiation 404 to the front side of substrate 112 without the use of any optical components. It should be noted that the illumination system 402 may include the components described above for scanning the radiation 404. The electrostatic clamp 406 is disposed in a substrate table 408 and includes an AC electrode system 410. A motor 412 is coupled to the substrate table to scan the substrate table 408. In addition, an AC voltage source 414 is coupled to the AC electrode system 410 to supply voltage signals (including AC voltages) to the electrodes of the AC electrode system 410. The controller 398A may be coupled to the illumination system 402, the motor 412, and the AC voltage source 414 to synchronize the actions of these components. For example, the timing of irradiating substrate 112 may be synchronized with an electrical excitation (electrical excitation) of the substrate using controller 398A. In some implementations, the controller 398A may be used to fire the AC voltage source 414 to provide a given voltage waveform with an amplitude, AC frequency, and rise time arranged to ensure that sufficient photo-carriers can be generated within the same half-cycle of the AC voltage. The details of a given voltage waveform may be based on the available UV intensity produced by the illumination system 402.

In a particular embodiment, the controller 398A may monitor the current clamping signal of the electrostatic clamp 406 to determine a charging condition of the substrate 112. In some embodiments, the clamp current signal may also be used to sense the wafer type before beginning substrate clamping.

Examples of the invention

Radiation source

According to some embodiments, the illumination system 106 or any of the other aforementioned illumination sources may be a visible light source. These embodiments of visible light sources would be particularly suitable for use with low bandgap semiconductor substrates (e.g., silicon, III-V compound semiconductors, II-VI compound semiconductors) where the bandgap may be below approximately 2.5eV.

According to further embodiments, the illumination system 106 or any of the other aforementioned illumination sources may be a long wavelength UV source, producing radiation within a wavelength range of 120nm to 240nm (this means an energy range of approximately 3eV to 4 eV). These embodiments of the UV radiation source would be particularly suitable for use with wide bandgap semiconductor substrates such as silicon carbide (SiC).

According to a further embodiment, the illumination system 106 or any of the other aforementioned illumination sources may be a VUV source, producing radiation in a wavelength range between 120nm to 240nm or below 120nm (this means an energy range of approximately 5eV to 10eV or above 10 eV). These embodiments of the VUV radiation source would be particularly suitable for use with insulator substrates (e.g., glass).

In some examples, any of the foregoing illumination sources may be multi-wavelength sources, where a wide range of wavelengths may be obtained from a single illumination source or from multiple different illumination sources. The same electrostatic chuck system can thus employ light sources having multiple wavelengths, with the shortest wavelength source being selected for the substrate with the highest energy bandgap, while sources having longer wavelengths and higher radiant fluxes can be selected for substrates that require less photon energy to bridge the bandgap to achieve higher conductivity.

While in some examples a laser may be employed to produce single wavelength radiation, in other examples an incoherent light source may be used to produce radiation characterized by a continuous or discrete wavelength spectrum with power highly concentrated around a small number of resonance lines (frequencies).

In a particular example, the output wavelength spectrum from the illumination source may be further customized using a filter. For example, for some substrate processing applications, a silicon wafer is bonded to a glass substrate using a UV sensitive adhesive. If a filter disposed between the illumination source and the substrate is used to filter out longer wavelengths transparent to the glass from radiation emitted by the illumination source, then the shorter wavelength portion of the radiation may be used to generate photo-carriers within the glass without completely penetrating through the glass and damaging the adhesive.

Non-limiting examples of suitable laser sources include diode lasers producing wavelengths as low as 191nm, other solid state lasers, excimer lasers (e.g., arF, krF, F2), continuous wave lasers, pulsed lasers, and the like.

Examples of suitable incoherent sources include deuterium lamps, electrodeless lamps (including line sources or continuous wavelength sources). An example of a deuterium lamp source output spectrum is shown in fig. 19, with certain details omitted for clarity. The output of such a seed source may be suitable for generating charge carriers in an insulator having a band gap above around 6 eV. Some examples of commercially available resonant line sources are shown in table I, including the type of radiation source and the wavelength of the radiation. Some examples of commercially available continuous source are shown in table II.

	(nm)
		Hydrogen	121.6
Krypton	116.5
			123.6
Xenon (Xe)	129.6
			147.0
Mercury	184.9
			253.7
Iodine	A plurality of

TABLE I

TABLE II

In one example, a VUV argon continuous source is used as an irradiation source to aid in electrostatic clamping of the glass or fused silica substrate. Fused silica has a bandgap of approximately 8eV, which requires a light source with a wavelength <150nm to generate photo-carriers. Fig. 18 shows the photocurrent generated by the glass substrate as a function of photon energy. As shown, no photocurrent is generated below 8eV, the photon energy rises gradually until 9eV is reached, above which the photocurrent increases rapidly, and reaches saturation at or above 10 eV. The reference dashed line at 9.5eV is shown. In one embodiment, an ArCM-LHP high power argon continuum source may be used, producing an output spectrum as shown in FIG. 17. The output spectrum is idealized, omitting some small details, while showing the general characteristics of the argon emission spectrum. As shown, the peak wavelength is in the range between 116nm and 140nm, with most of the integrated intensity of the broad emission spectrum at wavelengths below approximately 133nm (represented by the dashed line), corresponding to energies of 9.5eV or greater than 9.5 eV. This energy range matches the energy range in which photocurrent generation in the glass is significant, as shown in fig. 18. Such a seed source is commercially available in a relatively compact footprint to be easily attached to a common process chamber.

UV mirror

In one example, mgF can be used ₂ The coated aluminum mirror acts as a UV mirror to produce high reflectivity in the UV range as well as in the VUV range. Commercially available mirrors based on such materials can produce reflectivities greater than about 75% in the wavelength range from at least 300nm down to 120nm, providing efficient reflectivity for the initial UV beam. Such high reflectivity would facilitate beam expansion and steering using well known methods for visible mirror systems.

Electrostatic clamping using an argon arc lamp to AC clamp a glass substrate：

As described above, in the absence of photo carriers generated, for example, according to the foregoing embodiments, when an attempt is made to clamp an insulating substrate (dielectric substrate), the clamp electrode of the electrostatic clamp (electronic clamp) establishes an electric field throughout the dielectric.

Using the front side illumination disclosed above, charge carriers are generated at the top of the insulating substrate. Under the influence of the applied electric field, carriers move towards the back surface of the substrate (see fig. 1B). The result of this process is that the electric field in the gap between the substrate and the electronic fixture is strengthened. Without generating charge carriers, the electric field in the gap is approximately V/w, where V is the voltage difference between the electrodes and w is the spacing between the electrodes. If the surface charge layer is fully developed as shown in FIG. 1B, the electric field in the gap is approximately V/d, where d is the gap between the substrate and the electrode and the dielectric thickness of the dielectric material. This thickness is typically much smaller than the electrode spacing. An electric field intensification of 10 to 100 times, which corresponds to an intensification of 100 to 10,000 times of the clamping force, can be easily achieved. Therefore, it is a useful goal to establish a sufficiently high surface charge density in a sufficiently short time to achieve the potential benefits of increased clamping force. For example, to achieve effective AC clamping, the time for charge accumulation needs to be much shorter than the period of the applied AC voltage.

In the subsequent calculations, it is assumed that a known ArCM-LHP lamp, which may be higher than SiO at about 8eV, is used as the illumination source to produce the radiation spectrum as shown in FIG. 18 ₂ Band gap electron energy transfer 6 x 10 ¹⁶ Photon/sec/steradian and angle from fixed

The corresponding output angle 2 θ =45 °. The calculations can be adjusted quantitatively for different output angles and photon fluxes, as understood by those skilled in the art. UV mirrors can also be used to introduce reflection losses into the beam output from the lamp. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the expanded beam area is slightly larger than the substrate area, which also reduces the utilization of the beam flux. It is assumed that the mirror loss together with the off-substrate beam loss results in a 50% loss of usable beam flux. This assumption indicates a 1.45 x 10 on the substrate ¹⁶ Photon flux per second or phi =2 × 10 for 300mm wafers ¹³ Photons/sec/cm ² . The transport of photo-carriers in silicon dioxide has previously been extensively studied experimentally and numerically. Light conduction is a complex process. The conduction current is affected by the following factors: light absorption, quantum yield, lifetime of mobile carriers (which depends on recombination and trapping rates and can be very different for electrons and holes), electron and hole mobility (which can differ by many orders of magnitude), space charge accumulation in the insulator, and charge transfer across the interface between the substrate and the electron holder. Therefore, estimating the current based on the basic material properties is not reasonably reliable, and instead, the current calculation herein is based on experimentally measured photocurrent. In one particular example, the electronic fixture is designed such that an electric field strength of 5kV/mm is achieved in the glass substrate. The results of known studies show that at the above values of the electric field, at 5X 10 ¹¹ Photons/sec/cm ² Will yield a flux of 7.6X 10 ^-9 A/cm ² The conduction current density of (2). In this example, a higher lamp intensity (2 × 10) is used ¹³ Photons/sec/cm ² ) The current density was estimated as J =3 × 10 ^-7 A/cm ² . The charge density required to generate this clamping force under the experimental conditions of 50torr target clamping pressure is given by:

thus, the characteristic charge time in this example is given by:

this time is fast enough for low frequency AC excitation, e.g. with a frequency of 1Hz to 2Hz or a period of 500ms to 1 s. It should be noted that this estimate of characteristic charge time is an order of magnitude estimate of response time using practical electronic fixture electronic designs and commercially available VUV sources. The evaluation shows the feasibility of using the above method to achieve actual AC clamping of an insulating glass wafer. In other examples, the charging time can be shortened to below 0.1 seconds by using multiple light sources to increase the VUV intensity and optimize the electronic fixture electronic design and increase the electric field.

Clamping of high resistivity Si wafer and SiC wafer

As described above, commercially available HBR silicon wafers may exhibit a resistivity in the range of 100kOhm-cm may be useful. For SiC substrates, a resistivity of 10 has been reported ⁹ Ohm-cm. However, practical systems for generating photo-carriers in commonly used HBR semiconductor substrates may employ a UV light source, where SiO is due to the band gap ratio in Si and SiC ₂ The band gap in (A) is much smaller, so the main energy output is at a level much smaller than SiO ₂ Wavelength at which the energy output of the substrate is slightly longer (>250 nm). In addition, crystalline semiconductors (such as Si and SiC) have high electron and hole mobilities and fewer defects that create trapping compared to glass, and the structure also helps to reduce light carriersThe transit time of the seed under the electric field. Thus, assuming the above experimental-based results indicate that the charging time for SiO2 is about 0.1 seconds, a charging time significantly less than this can be achieved for HBR Si substrates and HBR SiC substrates, which can be achieved using the exemplary illumination source and fixture devices disclosed herein.

While the foregoing embodiments have focused on using high energy illumination to achieve chucking enhancement of high resistivity substrates, dechucking may be enhanced according to additional embodiments. In other words, when the electrostatic chuck is used to clamp a semiconductor substrate or an insulating substrate, in the case where the substrate is to be unclamped, the clamping voltage may be removed. In accordance with the embodiments disclosed above, to enhance dechucking of the substrate, photo-carriers may be generated by exposure to an illumination source. In this manner, the rate of decay of the previously established electric field and the removal of certain charges (e.g., neutralizing residual static charges) may be accelerated. Such enhancements may be applied to "conventional" semiconductor substrates having relatively low band gaps (e.g., in the visible range), as well as to HBR semiconductor substrates and insulator substrates.

Fig. 20 illustrates an exemplary process flow 500. At block 502, a substrate is provided on an electrostatic chuck assembly. In some embodiments, the substrate may be an HBR semiconductor substrate or an insulating substrate. At block 504, a clamping voltage (e.g., a DC voltage or an AC voltage) is applied to the electrostatic clamp assembly. At block 506, radiation is emitted to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic chuck assembly. The radiation may be characterized by an energy greater than the bandgap of the HBR semiconductor substrate or insulating substrate. The radiation may be emitted to the front surface of the substrate or to both rear surfaces of the substrate. As such, the radiation may have sufficient energy and sufficient intensity to generate charge carriers within the substrate such that a target clamping force is generated when a clamping voltage is applied.

FIG. 21 illustrates another process flow 550 according to additional embodiments. At block 552, a high bandgap substrate is provided on the electrostatic chuck assembly. At block 554, high energy radiation is directed to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic chuck assembly. The high energy radiation may have an energy above the bandgap of the substrate, where the energy may be sufficiently above the bandgap to generate charge carriers in the substrate. Non-limiting examples of high energy radiation include UV radiation or VUV radiation. At block 556, an AC clamping voltage waveform characterized by an amplitude, frequency, and rise time is applied to the electrostatic clamping assembly. As such, the AC clamping voltage waveform in combination with the high energy radiation may be configured to generate sufficient photo-carriers to establish the target clamping pressure during a half-cycle of the AC clamping voltage waveform.

Fig. 22 illustrates another exemplary process flow 600. At block 602, a high bandgap substrate is provided on an electrostatic chuck assembly. At block 604, the clamp current signal is detected to determine the substrate type of the high bandgap substrate. At method 606, high energy radiation is emitted to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic chuck assembly. At block 608, an AC clamping voltage waveform is applied from an AC power source to the electrostatic clamping assembly. In this way, the AC clamping voltage waveform can be characterized by a narrow high voltage pulse portion and a longer duration low voltage portion, wherein the maximum charge delivered by the high voltage pulse portion is limited to below a predetermined threshold.

Fig. 23 shows another exemplary process flow 650. At block 652, the substrate is clamped to the substrate table by the electrostatic clamp assembly. The substrate may be a silicon substrate, a silicon carbide substrate, a glass substrate, or other substrate. The substrate may be a low bandgap substrate or a high bandgap substrate. At block 654, the substrate is processed while on the substrate table. The treatment may be any suitable process. At the end of the process, high energy radiation is directed to the substrate to remove the electrostatic charge at block 656. The high energy radiation may be an energy above the bandgap of the substrate. The high energy substrate may be applied while removing a clamping voltage generated by the electrostatic clamp assembly.

Fig. 24 illustrates another exemplary process flow 700. At block 702, a substrate is clamped to a substrate table using an electrostatic clamp in conjunction with high energy radiation. The high energy radiation can have an energy above the band gap of the substrate and a sufficient intensity to generate a charge carrier motion in the substrate sufficient to generate a target clamping pressure. At block 704, the substrate is scanned while using the substrate table during a process interval. At block 706, scanning of the substrate by the substrate is synchronized with scanning of the radiation beam. In some variations, the radiation beam may be a wide beam covering a majority of the substrate, wherein scanning the radiation beam involves scanning the wide beam at the same rate as scanning the substrate to ensure that most or all of the radiation beam is intercepted by the substrate. In some variations, the radiation beam may be a narrow beam covering a narrow portion of the substrate, wherein scanning the radiation beam involves rapidly scanning the narrow beam back and forth to cover a target portion of the substrate, thereby creating a beam umbrella or beam envelope while superimposing a slower scan rate at the same rate as the scanning of the substrate to ensure that most or all of the beam envelope is intercepted by the substrate as the substrate moves.

While the foregoing embodiments have focused on applications relating to substrate clamping, in further embodiments, devices and techniques may be applied to reduce substrate charging in various processing environments. In various processing apparatus, including plasma apparatus, ion beam apparatus, and others, charged particles, including ions (ionic species) or electrons, can be used as a processing species to process a substrate, where charging can occur in the substrate during processing. This situation is particularly acute for new substrates, such as SiC substrates, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, and glass substrates, where such substrates can generate charge during processing that is not removed by the low mobility of the charge carriers in such substrates.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, illumination systems (such as those disclosed with respect to fig. 1-13 and 15) may be provided in a processing apparatus to facilitate removal of charge during substrate processing. Fig. 25 illustrates an embodiment of a processing system 800 for processing a substrate 112. According to various non-limiting embodiments, the processing system 800 may include a source 806 to emit processing species, such as an ion beam, electron beam, or plasma, to the substrate 112. For illustrative purposes only, the example shown in fig. 26 shows processing beam 807 being ejected onto substrate 112. The substrate 112 may be supported by a substrate holder 810. In a general embodiment, the substrate is scanned along direction 808 to expose the entire front surface 112A of the substrate 112, such as when the processing beam 807 does not cover the entire substrate 112. As generally set forth above, illumination system 106 can be provided to emit illumination to a major surface of substrate 112. According to some embodiments, the substrate 112 may be an electrical insulator, a high bandgap semiconductor, or other substrate having a relatively low charge mobility. For example, during processing by the processing beam 807, the substrate 112 may tend to accumulate charge on the front surface 112A. The illumination system 106 may be activated to emit radiation 120 to the substrate 112 to reduce or eliminate charge buildup on the substrate 112 and thus improve substrate processing.

In some embodiments, the following process may be followed. The substrate 112 is provided in a process chamber 802. Radiation 120 is emitted from illumination system 106 toward substrate 112 when the substrate is disposed in process chamber 802. When a substrate is disposed in the process chamber 802, the substrate 112 is processed such that a process species is provided to the substrate 112 within the processing beam 807, separate from the radiation 120 provided by the illumination system 106. According to a particular embodiment, at least a portion of the radiant energy of radiation 120 is equal to or greater than 2.5eV to produce energy above the bandgap of a given substrate. Although radiation 120 and treatment beam 807 are emitted toward the substrate at the same time as each other, the duration of radiation 120 and treatment beam 807 need not be the same, and radiation 120 may be initiated before or after initiation of treatment beam 807, and radiation 120 may be terminated before or after termination of treatment beam 807.

The present embodiment provides at least the following advantages. First, practical methods have been developed to achieve electrostatic clamping of high resistivity substrates, where known electrostatic clamping is not suitable. Another advantage is that in configurations where the illumination source is mounted on the substrate table, the illumination of the substrate is not affected by substrate movement (e.g., substrate scanning). Another advantage is that the application of the novel voltage waveform can further enhance the electrostatic clamping process. Yet another advantage is that the use of light irradiation to enhance electrostatic clamping can also be used to enhance dechucking. Additionally, as another advantage, irradiation can be used to increase and control the substrate temperature.

The scope of the present disclosure is not limited by the specific embodiments described herein. Indeed, other various embodiments of and modifications to the present disclosure, in addition to those described herein, will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the foregoing description and accompanying drawings. Accordingly, such other embodiments and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure. Moreover, although the present disclosure has been described herein in the context of a particular implementation in a particular environment for a particular purpose, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that its usefulness is not limited thereto and that the present disclosure may be beneficially implemented in any number of environments for any number of purposes. Accordingly, the claims set forth below should be construed in view of the full breadth and spirit of the present disclosure as described herein.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing a substrate on a fixture; and

emitting radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the fixture during substrate processing,

wherein the radiation comprises radiant energy, wherein at least a portion of the radiant energy is equal to or greater than 2.5eV.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising: filtering the radiation to block a portion of the radiation having an energy less than 2.5eV.

3. The method of claim 1, the illumination source comprising a diode laser source, another type of solid state laser, or an excimer laser.

4. The method of claim 3, comprising: emitting the radiation by pulsing the diode laser source.

5. The method of claim 1, the illumination source comprising a deuterium lamp source.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

emitting the radiation to a front side of the substrate, wherein the chuck is an electrostatic chuck, and wherein the electrostatic chuck clamps a backside of the substrate opposite the front side.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein emitting the radiation comprises:

emitting a narrow radiation beam to the substrate, wherein the narrow radiation beam covers a beam cross-section that includes less than an area of the substrate; and is

Rapidly scanning the narrow beam of radiation over the substrate, wherein the beam of radiation creates beam envelopes to cover the substrate.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein emitting the radiation comprises:

emitting the first beam to an optic;

reflecting the first beam to produce a second beam that is wider than the first beam; and

positioning the substrate relative to the optic, wherein the second beam illuminates the entire front side of the substrate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate is a high bulk resistivity silicon wafer, a SiC wafer, or a glass substrate.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising:

emitting the radiation to a backside of the substrate, wherein the chuck is an electrostatic chuck, and wherein the electrostatic chuck grips the backside of the substrate.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein emitting the radiation to the backside of the substrate further comprises: emitting the radiation from a plurality of irradiation sources at least partially disposed within the electrostatic chuck.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the chuck is an electrostatic chuck, the method further comprising:

applying a clamping voltage to the electrostatic clamp to clamp the substrate;

processing the substrate while the substrate is clamped by the electrostatic clamp; and the number of the first and second groups,

after the treatment:

removing the clamping voltage from the electrostatic clamp; and

emitting irradiation of dechucking radiation from an irradiation source to the substrate when the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic chuck,

wherein the de-chucking radiation comprises de-chucking radiation energy that is equal to or higher than a threshold energy for generating mobile charges in the substrate.

13. A method, comprising:

providing a substrate on an electrostatic chuck;

emitting radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed on the electrostatic chuck; and

applying an alternating clamping voltage to the electrostatic clamp while the radiation impinges on the substrate,

wherein the radiation comprises a radiation energy equal to or greater than 2.5eV.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the ac clamping voltage is applied at a frequency of less than 10 Hz.

15. The method of claim 13, comprising: adjusting a radiant flux of the radiation to produce a clamping force of 50Torr or greater than 50 Torr.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the substrate is a silica glass substrate, and wherein the illumination source comprises a vacuum ultraviolet light source that produces a peak wavelength below 150 nm.

17. A method, comprising:

providing a substrate in a process chamber;

emitting radiation from an illumination source to the substrate while the substrate is disposed in the process chamber; and

processing the substrate by providing a processing substance to the substrate separately from the radiation when the substrate is disposed in the process chamber,

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the substrate comprises a SiC substrate, a glass substrate, a silicon oxide substrate, or a silicon-on-insulator substrate.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein providing the processing species to the substrate comprises ejecting ions toward the substrate.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein ejecting the ions toward the substrate comprises: ejecting the ions to etch the substrate, ejecting the ions to deposit a coating on the substrate, or ejecting the ions to dope the substrate.