Lam Research Corporation
Progressive heating of components of substrate processing systems using TCR element-based heaters

Abstract:

A heater control system for heating components of a substrate processing system includes N heater zones, where N is an integer greater than zero. Each of the N heater zones heats a component of the substrate processing system and includes a resistive heater and a temperature sensor to sense a local temperature in a corresponding one of the N heater zones. A controller is configured to determine an average temperature of each of the N heater zones based on a resistance of the resistive heater in each of the N heater zones. The controller controls the resistive heater based on the average temperature and the local temperature in each of the N heater zones.