Products and Technology - MEMS-CET Process Chambers

Two different chamber configurations are available:

  • The 25 wafer chamber was developed to optimize the benefits of reduced pressure etching with the throughput demands of volume production
  • The 3 wafer chamber was designed to meet the needs of low to moderate volume production or the versatility of a development lab

New 25 Wafer High Production Chamber

The 25 wafer chamber was developed to optimize the benefits of reduced pressure, gas phase etching with the throughput demands of production. It is able to process up to 25 wafers at a time with excellent within wafer, wafer to wafer, and batch to batch uniformities. The internal cassette supports each wafer on three ceramic pins, and can be easily adjusted to accommodate 100, 125, 150 or 200 mm wafers.

Several unique design features were employed to address the uniformity challenges when processing multiple wafers simultaneously. The system incorporates a proven, optimized cross-flow design that is highly desirable for operation of a multiple wafer reactor to overcome temperature variations and boundary layer effects. By separating the wafer loading and processing zones, temperature non-uniformity and fluid dynamic disturbances normally caused by the wafer load/unload port have been eliminated.

In order to create an ideal, uniform thermal environment, densified carbon liners were chosen for all internal reactor surfaces. This material exhibits good conductivity and emissivity, and has thermal characteristics similar to silicon. Special cross-flow manifolds, optimized using extensive fluid dynamic modeling, are used for both the gas inlet and exhaust. External reactor surfaces are heated with a number of independent temperature-controlled zones for process and performance optimization.

With its built in loading elevator, the MEMS-CET 25 wafer process module is designed for installation on a multi-module cluster system for fully automatic wafer handling.

3 Wafer Process Chamber

Employing the same unique cross-flow design, the 3 wafer process chamber is perfectly suited to meet either moderate production needs or flexible, laboratory-scale requirements. The 3 wafer chamber can process up to three 100, 125, 150, or 200 mm substrates at a time.

The three zone temperature-controlled chamber is fabricated from nickel plated stainless steel, chosen for its compatibility with HF. It has a low internal volume insuring high pumping efficiency. A top-mounted sapphire viewing window permits observation of the upper substrate during etch processing.

The Primaxx MEMS-CET 3 wafer chamber is available mounted on a stand-alone, small footprint process module with a manual substrate loading slide, or in a multi-module cluster system built around a vacuum wafer handler.