US 12,351,917 B2
Multi-zone heater tuning in substrate heater
Jun Ma, Milpitas, CA (US)
Assigned to Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed by Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 1, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/247,128.
Prior Publication US 2022/0170159 A1, Jun. 2, 2022
Int. Cl. C23C 14/22 (2006.01); C23C 14/54 (2006.01); C23C 16/46 (2006.01); C23C 16/52 (2006.01); G06N 3/08 (2023.01); H01J 37/32 (2006.01)
CPC C23C 16/52 (2013.01) [C23C 14/22 (2013.01); C23C 14/541 (2013.01); C23C 16/46 (2013.01); G06N 3/08 (2013.01); H01J 37/32724 (2013.01); H01J 2237/2001 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
5. A method comprising:
correlating each heating element, of multiple heating elements in a multi-zone heater of a substrate support, with a zone of multiple zones of the substrate support configured to heat a substrate during processing;
accessing, by a processing device, a temperature matrix comprising multiple vectors corresponding to the multiple zones, wherein values in each vector represent a temperature rise across locations on the substrate support as a result of a corresponding heating element, of the multiple heating elements, being activated at a temperature set point;
determining, by the processing device, a temperature map of the substrate support by multiplying the temperature matrix by a weight vector, wherein the weight vector contains estimated weight values for each respective vector of the temperature matrix;
determining, by the processing device, a target parameter map of a film on a substrate to be processed on the substrate support based on an original parameter map and the temperature map, the original parameter map comprising data characterizing a process parameter across locations of an original film on an original substrate heated at a uniform temperature;
iteratively updating, by the processing device, the estimated weight values of the weight vector so that the temperature map results in minimizing a standard deviation of parameter values within the target parameter map; and
saving, by the processing device, the estimated weight values as control values for respective ones of the multiple heating elements; and
retrieving and employing, by the multi-zone heater in processing subsequent substrates, the estimated weight values to ensure a threshold level of film uniformity on the subsequent substrates.