Thermal modelling and design of dynamically-controlled heater plates for high temperature processing of 300 mm wafers

The temperature uniformity of heater plates (HPs) should be sustained due to critical dimension uniformity and robust operation in high temperature processing of 300 mm wafers. It is very challenging to maintain the temperature uniformity of the HP despite the dynamic control of power inputs and temperatures. The packaged power terminals (PPTs) of the HPs may considerably affect their thermal reliability. Hence, the sophisticated thermal modellings and designs of the HPs and the PPTs are necessary. In this study, the finite element analysis (FEA) thermal models of the HP and the PPT were generated, experimentally validated, and employed for the analysis and the design. The influences of the heating element width, the heating element gap, and the zone gap on the thermal performance of the HP were investigated. The parametric influences of the substrate thickness on the thermal performance of the PPT were also explored. The results show that the effect of the heating element width on the temperature of the HP is almost negligible. The results have found that a sophisticated design of the heating elements may reduce the radial temperature difference of the HP by 56 % compared with the baseline case. The results suggest that the sophisticated design may enable both the simplified structure and the enhanced temperature uniformity of the HP.