Patent · US Expired

Prevention of ground fault interrupts in a semiconductor processing system

US6110322A · kind A · utility

56Cited by
8References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 6, 1998
Grant dateAug 29, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 6, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01L21/68785
  • WIPO fieldSemiconductors
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A pedestal heating system provided for heating a pedestal disposed in the processing chamber of a substrate processing system. A pedestal heating system according to the present invention includes: a heater power supply, a transformer, coupled to the heater power supply, a heater element coupled to the transformer, and an RF ground electrode. The transformer is configured to reduce leakage current from the heater element to various elements of the substrate processing system by localizing current leakage loops. The heater element and RF ground electrode are disposed within the pedestal. Preferably, the transformer is simply an isolation transformer. Where an RF energy source is used, such as in a plasma CVD processing system, an EMI filter may be coupled between the transformer and the heater element, or at another point in the power supply chain to prevent feed-through of RF energy to other of the substrate processing system's subsystems, or other sensitive electronic circuitry coupled to the facility's power supply.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.