Patent ID: 8642480

Claim:
A method of using a plasma etching system, the plasma etching system comprising a substrate support assembly for supporting a substrate during plasma etching, the substrate support assembly comprising a plurality of independently controllable heater zones in an arrangement under device die locations on the substrate, and a controller unit that controls each heater zone; the method comprising: measuring pre-etch critical device parameters on a plurality of device die locations on the substrate; communicating at least one of the pre-etch critical device parameters and post-etch critical device parameters from previously etched substrate to the plasma etching system; subsequently supporting the substrate on the substrate support assembly; communicating process recipe parameters to the plasma etching system and/or loading process recipe parameters from a memory to the plasma etching system; deducing a target etching temperature for predetermined locations on the substrate from at least one of the process recipe parameters, target post-etch critical device parameters, the pre-etch critical device parameters, and the post-etch critical device parameters; adjusting temperature of each device die location to its target etching temperature, using the controllable heater zones; and plasma etching the substrate.