A wafer chuck assembly includes a puck, a shaft and a base. The puck includes an electrically insulating material that defines a top surface of the puck; a plurality of electrodes are embedded within the electrically insulating material. The puck also includes an inner puck element that forms one or more channels for a heat exchange fluid, the inner puck element being in thermal communication with the electrically insulating material, and an electrically conductive plate disposed proximate to the inner puck element. The shaft includes an electrically conductive shaft housing that is electrically coupled with the plate, and a plurality of connectors, including electrical connectors for the electrodes. The base includes an electrically conductive base housing that is electrically coupled with the shaft housing, and an electrically insulating terminal block disposed within the base housing, the plurality of connectors passing through the terminal block.

A semiconductor substrate processing apparatus includes a vacuum chamber having a processing zone in which a semiconductor substrate may be processed, a process gas source in fluid communication with the vacuum chamber for supplying a process gas into the vacuum chamber, a showerhead module through which process gas from the process gas source is supplied to the processing zone of the vacuum chamber, and a substrate pedestal module. The substrate pedestal module includes a platen made of ceramic material having an upper surface configured to support a semiconductor substrate thereon during processing, a stem made of ceramic material having an upper stem flange that supports the platen, and a backside gas tube made of ceramic material that is located in an interior of the stem. The backside gas tube includes an upper gas tube flange that is located between a lower surface of the platen and an upper surface of the upper stem flange wherein the backside gas tube is in fluid communication with at least one backside gas passage of the platen and the backside gas tube is configured to supply a backside gas to a region below a lower surface of a semiconductor substrate that is to be supported on the upper surface of the platen during processing.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods for depositing an amorphous carbon layer onto a substrate, including over previously formed layers on the substrate, using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process. In particular, the methods described herein utilize a combination of RF AC power and pulsed DC power to create a plasma which deposits an amorphous carbon layer with a high ratio of sp3 (diamond-like) carbon to sp2 (graphite-like) carbon. The methods also provide for lower processing pressures, lower processing temperatures, and higher processing powers, each of which, alone or in combination, may further increase the relative fraction of sp3 carbon in the deposited amorphous carbon layer. As a result of the higher sp3 carbon fraction, the methods described herein provide amorphous carbon layers having improved density, rigidity, etch selectivity, and film stress as compared to amorphous carbon layers deposited by conventional methods.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a heated support pedestal including a body comprising a ceramic material, a support arm extending radially outward from a periphery of the body that is coupled to a shaft, and a vacuum conduit disposed within the shaft and through the body to connect with a surface of the body.

Various embodiments herein relate to methods and apparatus for depositing silicon oxide using thermal ALD or thermal CVD. In one aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a method for depositing silicon oxide is provided, the method including: (a) receiving the substrate in a reaction chamber; (b) introducing a first flow of a first reactant into the reaction chamber and exposing the substrate to the first reactant, where the first reactant includes a silicon-containing reactant; (c) introducing a second flow of a second reactant into the reaction chamber to cause a reaction between the first reactant and the second reactant, (i) where the second reactant includes hydrogen (H2) and an oxygen-containing reactant, (ii) where the reaction deposits silicon oxide on the substrate, and (iii) where the reaction is initiated when a pressure in the reaction chamber is greater than 10 Torr and equal to or less than about 40 Torr.

An apparatus for treating a substrate includes a heat treatment chamber having an interior space, a housing that is provided in the interior space and that has a treatment space therein, a gas supply line that supplies, into the treatment space, a hydrophobic gas for hydrophobicizing the substrate, and a decomposition unit that decomposes an alkaline gas leaking from the treatment space to the interior space.

A film deposition method includes maintaining an inside of a chamber to have a predetermined pressure, cooling a stage, on which the object to be processed mounts, to have an ultralow temperature of −20° C., and mounting the object to be processed on the stage, supplying a gas including a low vapor pressure material gas of a low vapor pressure material into the inside of the chamber, and generating plasma from the supplied gas including the gas of the low vapor pressure material, and causing a precursor generated from the low vapor pressure material by the plasma to be deposited on a recess part of the object to be processed.

An apparatus 1 for processing a plurality of substrates 3 is provided. The apparatus may have a process tube 5 creating a process chamber 7; a heater 9 surrounding the process tube 5; a flange 11 for supporting the process tube; and a door 15 configured to support a wafer boat 17 with a plurality of substrates 3 in the process chamber and to seal the process chamber 7. An exhaust operably connected to the process chamber 7 may be provided to remove gas from the process chamber via a first exhaust duct 19. The apparatus may be provided with an extractor chamber 21 surrounding the first exhaust duct where it connects to the process chamber and connected to a second exhaust duct 23 to remove gas from the extractor chamber.

Exemplary substrate support assemblies may include a platen characterized by a first surface configured to support a semiconductor substrate. The assemblies may include a first stem section coupled with a second surface of the platen opposite the first surface of the platen. The assemblies may include a second stem section coupled with the first stem section. The second stem section may include a housing and a rod holder disposed within the housing. The second stem section may include a connector seated within the rod holder at a first end of the connector. The second stem section may include a heater rod disposed within the first end of the connector and a heater extension rod coupled with the connector at a second end of the connector. The second stem section may include an RF rod and an RF strap coupling the RF rod with an RF extension rod.

There is provided a technique that includes: etching a first film exposed on a surface of a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times, the cycle including non-simultaneously performing: (a) forming a first modified layer in at least a portion of a surface of the first film by supplying a first gas to the substrate; and (b) etching at least a portion of the first film with an etching species, the etching species being generated by supplying a second gas having a molecular structure different from that of the first gas to the substrate to perform at least one selected from the group of causing the second gas to react with the first modified layer and activating the first modified layer with the second gas.