Patent ID: 12249501

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Although certain embodiments and examples are disclosed below, it will be understood by those in the art that the invention extends beyond the specifically disclosed embodiments and/or uses of the invention and obvious modifications and equivalents thereof. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the invention disclosed should not be limited by the particular disclosed embodiments described below.

As used herein, the term “substrate” may refer to any underlying material or materials, including any underlying material or materials that may be modified, or upon which, a device, a circuit, or a film may be formed. The “substrate” may be continuous or non-continuous; rigid or flexible; solid or porous; and combinations thereof. The substrate may be in any form, such as a powder, a plate, or a workpiece. Substrates in the form of a plate may include wafers in various shapes and sizes. Substrates may be made from semiconductor materials, including, for example, silicon, silicon germanium, silicon oxide, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride and silicon carbide.

As examples, a substrate in the form of a powder may have applications for pharmaceutical manufacturing. A porous substrate may comprise polymers. Examples of workpieces may include medical devices (for example, stents and syringes), jewelry, tooling devices, components for battery manufacturing (for example, anodes, cathodes, or separators) or components of photovoltaic cells, etc.

A continuous substrate may extend beyond the bounds of a process chamber where a deposition process occurs. In some processes, the continuous substrate may move through the process chamber such that the process continues until the end of the substrate is reached. A continuous substrate may be supplied from a continuous substrate feeding system to allow for manufacture and output of the continuous substrate in any appropriate form.

Non-limiting examples of a continuous substrate may include a sheet, a non-woven film, a roll, a foil, a web, a flexible material, a bundle of continuous filaments or fibers (for example, ceramic fibers or polymer fibers). Continuous substrates may also comprise carriers or sheets upon which non-continuous substrates are mounted.

The illustrations presented herein are not meant to be actual views of any particular material, structure, or device, but are merely idealized representations that are used to describe embodiments of the disclosure.

The particular implementations shown and described are illustrative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the aspects and implementations in any way. Indeed, for the sake of brevity, conventional manufacturing, connection, preparation, and other functional aspects of the system may not be described in detail. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown in the various figures are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements. Many alternative or additional functional relationship or physical connections may be present in the practical system, and/or may be absent in some embodiments.

It is to be understood that the configurations and/or approaches described herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specific embodiments or examples are not to be considered in a limiting sense, because numerous variations are possible. The specific routines or methods described herein may represent one or more of any number of processing strategies. Thus, the various acts illustrated may be performed in the sequence illustrated, in other sequences, or omitted in some cases.

The subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and nonobvious combinations and subcombinations of the various processes, systems, and configurations, and other features, functions, acts, and/or properties disclosed herein, as well as any and all equivalents thereof.

FromFIG.1(a) to (c)illustrate how a connector embodiment is formed according to the present disclosure.

InFIG.1(a), an electrode connector110resides inside of a ceramic material100. Usually, the ceramic material100locates below a wafer support (not illustrated) in a wafer processing apparatus

The electrode connector110may have a dome shape according to the present disclosure.

For minimizing the risk of getting cracks, the present disclosure's electrode connector110may have a dome shape as shown inFIG.1(a).

The drilling or surface machining may take out a chunk of a ceramic material including the dome shape part120for a rod130to be bonded to the drilled-out electrode connector112.

The top of the remaining part of the electrode connector111would be flattened by the drilling so that rod can be bonded onto the flattened surface.

FIG.1(c)illustrates attaching and bonding the rod130to the drilled electrode connector112in the ceramic material102according to an embodiment of the invention. The rod130and the electrode connector112are bonded with brazing using sheet type metal.

The length of the electrode connector112may at least be equal to or bigger than the width of the rod130.

FIGS.2(a) and (b)illustrate the comparison of the prior art and an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG.2(a)illustrates how a rod is bonded with an electrode connector in a prior art reference. AndFIG.2(b)illustrates the same situation as inFIG.1(c)when the method according to the present disclosure is performed. As can be seen, the length of electrode connector210is not as large as that of the rod220so the length of contact area230may not contain the entire of the rod220.

FIG.2(b)illustrates the contact area231to be a lot longer (larger contact) than the counterpart of its prior art inFIG.2(a)and may well contain enough of the length of the rod221. As stated above, the bonding method between the rod221and the electrode connector231is brazing with a sheet type metal, such as Au filler.

As the length of the electrode connector211may be longer than that of the rod221in larger contact231, the bonding may be stronger than that of230and the impedance would be smaller than that of230(due to the larger contact area). This could reduce the probability of getting physical and thermal stress it would get from the heating and moving it would get during wafer processing.

FIG.3illustrates the flow chart of the method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

An electrode connector may be prepared to have a dome shape in a ceramic material (310). As explained previously, this dome-shaped connector would be likely to have less chance of getting cracks in the ceramic materials especially in vertex areas.

When positioned inside the ceramic material, the ceramic material along with a portion of the dome-shaped electrode connector (320). The chance of cracks in the ceramic material would be higher especially in the sharp areas such as edges or vertices. The dome-shape of the electrode connector would remove some of the sharp edges and vertices so that the probability of getting cracks would be reduced even during the drilling out. This drill out would flatten the electrode connector on the contact surface231shown inFIG.2(b)and would make an area for a rod.

After drilling out, a rod would be attached to the drilled-out, flat area of the electrode connector (330). This bond would be stronger since the rod may be well within the flattened, bonding area so that the resulting bonding force would be strong, and the large area would reduce the resulting impedance when heating may be on.

The length of the bonding area inFIG.2(a)would be usually 3 mm in the prior art. And increasing the length would mean much higher probability of getting cracked.

With the method presented in the present disclosure, the length of the bonding area231could be increased up to 5 mm or more which could be important in that the rod221could well be fit within the electrode connector211.

FIG.4illustrates a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The substrate processing apparatus400may comprise a wall surrounding a space490which may be used to process a substrate405. The substrate processing apparatus400may also comprise a showerhead420which may be used to generate plasma and to disperse gas for processing the substrate405. The substrate processing apparatus400may also comprise a susceptor450which may be used to support a substrate405.

The susceptor450may comprise a plurality of radio frequency (RF) meshes440and a plurality of heating elements430. The susceptor450may also comprise rods460,470and electrode480. The rods may comprise a heating rod460and an RF rod470.

In general, the showerhead420may be used as an upper electrode and a lower electrode480may be installed in the susceptor for generating plasma. The electrode480may be used as an electrode connector480that is connected to a rod. The rod connected to the electrode connector480may be an RF rod.

As described earlier, the rod470connected to the electrode (connector)480and the width (or diameter if the electrode may be circle-shaped) of the electrode480may be larger than the diameter of the rod470so that the rod470may be attached firmly to the electrode480.

The above-described arrangement of method is merely illustrative of applications of the principles of this invention and many other embodiments and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.