公开(公告)号：US11171030B2

公开(公告)日：2021-11-09

申请号：US16403850

申请日：2019-05-06

Applicant: APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.

Inventor： Hamid Noorbakhsh ,  Anwar Husain ,  Haitao Wang ,  Sergio F Shoji

IPC: H01L21/683 ,  H01J37/32 ,  H01L21/67

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for dechucking a wafer from a surface of an electrostatic chuck (ESC). In some embodiments, a method comprises reducing a pressure of a gas applied to a backside of the wafer to approximately zero psi; reducing a downward pressure in a cylinder bore of a lifting actuator to approximately atmospheric pressure while a processing volume of the processing chamber is in a vacuum state to create a constant upward force on the wafer, the constant upward force less than a breaking force of the wafer; and sweeping a voltage applied to the ESC to dechuck the wafer; and monitoring a sensor on the lifting actuator that is interposed between a chucking position of the lifting actuator and a transfer position of the lifting actuator to detect when the wafer is dechucked.