Patent ID: 8444869

Claim:
A method of stripping photoresist from the front side of a substrate having a front side and a backside, the method comprising: after performing a lithographic etch process, providing a substrate having photoresist deposited on its front side to a photoresist strip chamber; positioning said substrate in a first position, wherein in said first position the substrate is positioned over a platen residing in said photoresist strip chamber to form a gap therein that prevents said substrate from contacting said platen; introducing one or more gases to a remote plasma source upstream of the photoresist strip chamber to generate a strip plasma; and while the substrate is in said first position, exposing the substrate to the strip plasma to remove a first portion of the photoresist from the front side of the substrate, wherein the backside of the substrate is simultaneously cleaned during removal of the first portion of photoresist from the front side.