IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,334,315
Granted Patent B2
US 12,334,315 · App. 16/863,719 · Granted Jun 17, 2025

Cooled substrate support assembly for radio frequency environments

Inventors: Vijay D. Parkhe (San Jose, CA); Andreas Schmid (Meyriez, CH); Andrew Antoine Noujaim (Morgan Hill, CA); Stephen Donald Prouty (San Jose, CA); Alvaro Garcia De Gorordo (San Francisco, CA); Martin Perez-Guzman (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
H01J37/32724C23C16/4586H01L21/68785H01J37/321H01J37/32577H01L21/6831
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,334,315
App. No.
16/863,719
Granted
Jun 17, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A substrate support assembly is described herein that includes a facility plate, a ground plate coupled to the facility plate, a fluid conduit disposed within the substrate support assembly disposed through the facility plate and the ground plate, and a connector coupled to the ground plate that houses a portion of the fluid conduit. The connector includes a biasing assembly and a fastener disposed in a pocket formed in the ground plate.

Claims (37)

1. A substrate support assembly comprising:

a body comprising:

an electrostatic chuck base assembly having channels configured to be fluidly coupled to a cryogenic chiller;

a facility plate disposed below the electrostatic chuck base assembly; and

a ground plate coupled a bottom surface of to the facility plate;

a tubular member having a fluid conduit disposed therethrough, the tubular member disposed through the facility plate and the ground plate and fluidly coupled to the electrostatic chuck base assembly, the tubular member having a first end guide and a spring seal disposed at a first end that extends beyond a bottom surface of the ground plate, the first end guide disposed around the tubular member and extending beyond the first end of the tubular member, and the tubular member having a second end guide disposed at a second end of the fluid conduit, wherein the second end guide is in contact with the electrostatic chuck base assembly and includes a friction reducing coating disposed thereon; and

a connector physically coupled to the bottom surface of the ground plate, the connector housing a portion of the tubular member, the first end guide and spring seal disposed below the bottom surface of the ground plate and in the connector, the first end guide contacting the tubular member and the connector in a manner that restricts axial compression of the spring seal, the spring seal providing an axial seal between the spring seal and the connector.

2. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 further comprising:

a biasing assembly and a fastener disposed in a pocket formed in the ground plate, wherein the biasing assembly comprises a plurality of spring forms coupled between the fastener and the pocket.

3. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the connector includes a sliding seal surrounding a body of the connector.

4. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the connector includes one or more vacuum channels formed therein.

5. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , further comprising an electrostatic chuck disposed on the electrostatic chuck base assembly, wherein the electrostatic chuck has an RF electrode.

6. The substrate support assembly of claim 5 , further comprising a bond layer at an interface between a bottom surface of the electrostatic chuck and a top surface of the electrostatic chuck base assembly.

7. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the connector is coupled to a lower surface of the ground plate by a thermal gasket.

8. The substrate support assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first end guide includes a friction reducing coating disposed thereon.

9. A substrate support assembly comprising:

a base assembly for supporting an electrostatic chuck;

a facility plate coupled to the base assembly;

a dielectric plate coupled to the facility plate;

a ground plate coupled to the dielectric plate;

a tubular member having a fluid conduit disposed therethrough, the tubular member disposed through the facility plate and the ground plate, the tubular member having a first end guide and a spring seal disposed at a first end that extends beyond a bottom surface of the ground plate, the first end guide disposed around the tubular member and extending beyond the first end of the tubular member and the tubular member having a second end guide disposed at a second end of the fluid conduit, wherein the second end guide is in contact with the electrostatic chuck base assembly and includes a friction reducing coating disposed thereon; and

a connector coupled to a bottom surface of the ground plate, the connector housing a portion of the tubular member, the first end guide and spring seal disposed in the connector below the bottom surface of the ground plate, the first end guide contacting the tubular member and the connector in a manner that restricts axial compression of the spring seal, the spring seal providing an axial seal between the spring seal and the connector, the connector comprising a biasing assembly and a fastener disposed in a pocket formed in the ground plate, and a sliding seal surrounding a body of the connector.

10. The substrate support assembly of claim 9 , further comprising a bond layer disposed on a top surface of the base assembly.

11. The substrate support assembly of claim 9 , wherein the connector is coupled to a lower surface of the ground plate by a thermal gasket.

12. The substrate support assembly of claim 9 , wherein the first end guide includes a friction reducing coating disposed thereon.

13. The substrate support assembly of claim 9 , further comprising a sleeve provided around the fluid conduit.

14. The substrate support assembly of claim 13 , wherein the sleeve includes a gap formed between an outer surface thereof and the base assembly, the dielectric plate, and the ground plate.

15. A substrate support assembly comprising:

an electrostatic chuck;

a base assembly coupled to the electrostatic chuck, the base assembly having base channels configured to flow a cryogenic fluid for cooling the electrostatic chuck;

a facility plate coupled to the base assembly, the facility plate having facility channel configured to flow a temperature control fluid therethrough;

a dielectric plate coupled to the facility plate;

a ground plate coupled to the facility plate;

a tubular member having a fluid conduit disposed therethrough, the tubular member disposed through the facility plate and the ground plate, the tubular member having a first end guide and a spring seal disposed at a first end that extends beyond a bottom surface of the ground plate and the tubular member having a second end guide disposed at a second end of the fluid conduit, wherein the second end guide is in contact with the electrostatic chuck base assembly and includes a friction reducing coating disposed thereon; and

a connector coupled to a bottom surface of the ground plate, the connector housing a portion of the tubular member, the first end guide and spring seal disposed in the connector below the bottom surface of the ground plate, the first end guide contacting the tubular member and the connector in a manner that restricts axial compression of the spring seal, the spring seal providing an axial seal between the spring seal and the connector, the connector comprising a biasing assembly and a fastener disposed in a pocket formed in the ground plate, and a sliding seal surrounding a body of the connector.

16. The substrate support assembly of claim 15 , further comprising a bond layer disposed on a top surface of the base assembly.

17. The substrate support assembly of claim 15 , wherein the connector is coupled to the ground plate by a thermal gasket.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 8, 2021
From: PARKHE, VIJAY D.; SCHMID, ANDREAS; NOUJAIM, ANDREW ANTOINE; PROUTY, STEPHEN DONALD; GARCIA DE GORORDO, ALVARO; PEREZ-GUZMAN, MARTIN
To: APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.
Reel/Frame 054861/0397 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20210343512A1 · Nov 4, 2021
References Cited (41)
US 5376213A · Ueda · 1994 [cited by examiner]
US 5522937A · Chew · 1996 [cited by examiner]
US 5880924A · Kumar · 1999 [cited by examiner]
US 6022418A · Iwabuchi · 2000 [cited by examiner]
US 6138745A · Moslehi · 2000 [cited by examiner]
US 6296255B1 · Hashimoto · 2001 [cited by examiner]
US 6558508B1 · Kawakami · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6949722B2 · Strang et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 7025863B2 · Seeli · 2006 [cited by examiner]
US 7161121B1 · Steger · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 7230204B2 · Mitrovic et al. · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 7651583B2 · Kent et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 8007591B2 · Hamelin · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 9779955B2 · Lill et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 10283398B2 · Tanaka et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20020014894A1 · Yonezawa et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20050172903A1 · Morita · 2005 [cited by examiner]
US 20060027169A1 · Tsukamoto · 2006 [cited by examiner]
US 20080217293A1 · Iimuro · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20100122774A1 · Makabe et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 20130001899A1 · Hwang et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20170372911A1 · Lill et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20180076048A1 · Gohira et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180151402A1 · Noorbakhsh · 2018 [cited by examiner]
US 20180197761A1 · Ferrara et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180211822A1 · Gohira et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180211924A1 · Andry et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180350561A1 · Yamaguchi et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190027345A1 · Ishikawa et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190035609A1 · Tobe · 2019 [cited by applicant]
JP 06181186A · 1994 [cited by applicant]
JP 2012142413A · 2012 [cited by applicant]
JP 2014521213A · 2014 [cited by applicant]
JP 2016187056A · 2016 [cited by applicant]
KR 100233210B1 · 1999 [cited by applicant]
KR 101132632B1 · 2012 [cited by applicant]
“Apex Fasteners: Spring Washers” (Waybackmachine archive captured 2015). [cited by examiner]
International Search Report and Written Opinion in related application PCT/US2020/065708 dated Apr. 21, 2021. [cited by applicant]
Taiwan Office Action for Application No. 109145235 dated Oct. 20, 2023. [cited by applicant]
Office Action for Application No. 2022-566350 dated Jan. 30, 2024. [cited by applicant]
Korean Office Action for Application No. 10-2022-7041742 dated Apr. 23, 2024. [cited by applicant]