GAS BARRIER WITH VENT RING FOR PROTECTING A SURFACE REGION FROM LIQUID

摘要

A protective chuck is disposed on a substrate with a gas bearing layer between the bottom surface of the protective chuck and the substrate surface. The gas bearing layer protects a surface region against a fluid layer covering the substrate surface. The protection of the gas bearing is a non-contact protection, reducing or eliminating potential damage to the substrate surface due to friction. The gas bearing can enable combinatorial processing of a substrate, providing multiple isolated processing regions on a single substrate with different material and processing conditions.