Novel and Low-Cost Techniques for Extending the Etch Capabilities of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Etch Tool That Has Clamp Fingers for Clamping 4-Inch Diameter Wafers

Widening the processing capabilities of an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch tool by “preventing wafer breakage” during processing of wafers, or by gaining the capability to do “through-wafer silicon etch” are important challenges that may need to be resolved with very limited resources. Resolving the undesired wafer breakage issues caused during processing of wafers is important to reduce the manufacturing costs, and increase production yield. Furthermore, considering the high prices of the state-of-the-art wafer processing tools, it is also important to prevent wafer breakage by using low-cost approaches especially if the resources for purchasing state-of-the-art processing equipment are not available. Two novel methods (method #1, and method #2) are developed to prevent wafer breakage and allow through-wafer silicon etching. With method #1, an aluminium alloy ring (AAR) and an o-ring are employed to obtain uniform load distribution (instead of point loads) on the required outer region on the surface of a wafer, and to minimize or completely remove the bending moment that may be formed on the possible cross-sections of the entire wafer, during clamping of the wafer. With method #2, through-wafer silicon etching is made possible by simultaneous application of method #1 and addition of a helium cooling gas (HCG) leakage blocking dicing tape at the back side of the wafer that is under processing for through-wafer etching. By using the explained methods, wafer breakage during ICP etch processing is eliminated, and through-wafer silicon etching is made possible. From the other side, the effective wafer area that can be used for processing is reduced by 48%. Novel and capability enabling 2 different techniques that are extremely low-cost compared to purchasing a state-of-the-art ICP etch tool are presented to extend the processing capabilities of an ICP etch tool for deep silicon etching (method #1), and through-wafer silicon etching (method #2).