Forming mesas on an electrostatic chuck

1 . A method for preparing a body of an electrostatic chuck, the method comprising:

polishing a surface of the body;

cleaning the polished surface of the body;

depositing first mesas on the polished surface of the body, wherein depositing the first mesas comprises:

depositing an adhesion layer on the polished surface of the body;

depositing a transition layer over the adhesion layer; and

depositing a coating layer comprising erbium oxynitride over the transition layer, wherein the coating layer has a hardness of at least 14 GPa; and

polishing the first mesas to smooth a surface of the first mesas.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising positioning a mask over the polished surface of the body, wherein the mask comprises apertures, each of the apertures corresponds to a respective one of the first mesas.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein each of the apertures comprises:

an upper portion having a first opening with a first width;

a middle portion having a second opening with a second width less than the first width; and

a lower portion, wherein the middle portion is between the upper portion and the lower portion.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein a sidewall of the first opening forms an angle with a surface of the mask, the angle being less than 90 degrees.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the surface of the body is polished to generate an average surface roughness of less than or equal to 4 μm.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the coating layer contains less than 20 percent oxygen as measured by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) analysis.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the coating layer contains more than 20 percent oxygen as measured by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) analysis.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the coating layer contains 20 percent to 40 percent oxygen and 30 percent to 50 percent nitrogen as measured by energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDX).

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising forming a sidewall coating over a sidewall of the body.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the sidewall coating comprises erbium oxynitride.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing second mesas from the body.

12 . A body of an electrostatic chuck, the body comprising:

mesas disposed on a polished surface of the body, each of the mesas comprising:

an adhesion layer disposed on the polished surface of the body;

a transition layer disposed over the adhesion layer; and

a coating layer comprising erbium oxynitride disposed over the transition layer, wherein the coating layer has a hardness of at least 14 GPa; and

a sidewall coating disposed over a sidewall of the body.

13 . The body of claim 12 , wherein the coating layer contains less than 20 percent oxygen as measured by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) analysis.

14 . The body of claim 12 , wherein the coating layer contains more than 20 percent oxygen as measured by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) analysis.

15 . The body of claim 12 , wherein the coating layer contains 20 percent to 40 percent oxygen and 30 percent to 50 percent nitrogen as measured by energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDX).

16 . An electrostatic chuck comprising:

a body comprising:

mesas disposed on a polished surface of the body, each of the mesas comprising:

an adhesion layer disposed on the polished surface of the body;

a transition layer disposed over the adhesion layer; and

a coating layer comprising erbium oxynitride disposed over the transition layer, wherein the coating layer has a hardness of at least 14 GPa; and

a sidewall coating disposed over a sidewall of the body; and

a base attached to the body.

17 . The electrostatic chuck of claim 16 , wherein the coating layer has a hardness of at least 20 GPa, and contains 20 percent to 40 percent oxygen, and 30 percent to 50 percent nitrogen as measured by energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDX).

18 . The electrostatic chuck of claim 16 , wherein the sidewall coating is comprised of an oxynitride material having less than 20 percent oxygen.

19 . The electrostatic chuck of claim 18 , wherein the oxynitride material having less than 20 percent oxygen is aluminum oxynitride or erbium oxynitride.

20 . The electrostatic chuck of claim 16 , wherein the sidewall coating is comprised of an oxynitride material having 20 percent to 40 percent oxygen.