Patent ID: 11929241
Assignee: APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method to determine a temperature profile of a substrate attached to an electrostatic chuck during processing, the method comprising:
(a) measuring a first combined current load of a plurality of heating elements in the electrostatic chuck, wherein the measuring a first combined current load comprises measuring when the plurality of heating elements are each in an ON state except for a first heating element of the plurality of heating elements;
(b) changing a power status of the first heating element of the plurality of heating elements, wherein changing a power status comprises changing the first heating element to an ON state;
(c) measuring a second combined current load of the plurality of heating elements after changing the power status of the first heating element;
(d) determining the difference between the first and second combined current loads;
(e) determining a temperature of the first heating element using the difference; and
(f) reverting the power status of the first heating element to that before (b) and repeating (b), (c), and (d) for each of the other heating elements of the plurality of heating elements; and
(g) determining a temperature for each of the other heating elements of the plurality of heating elements.