APPARATUS AND METHOD OF TEMPERATURE CONROL DURING CLEAVING PROCESSES OF THICK FILM MATERIALS

• US 20080188011A1
• Filed: 01/24/2008
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Silicon Genesis
• Original Assignee: Silicon Genesis
• Inventors: Henley, Francois J.
• Application Number:
  US12/019,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20080188011A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 438/5
• CPC Class Codes: B28D 1/221 by thermic methods
• CPC Class Codes: B28D 5/00 Fine working of gems, jewels, crystals, e.g. of semiconductor material; apparatus or devices therefor working by grinding or polishing B24; for artistic purposes B44B
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/2001 Maintaining constant desired temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/2005 Seal mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/2007 Holding mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/31701 Ion implantation
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/20 Means for supporting or positioning the object or the material; Means for adjusting diaphragms or lenses associated with the support
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/76254 with separation/delamination along an ion implanted layer, e.g. Smart-cut, Unibond
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/26 Acting in response to an ongoing measurement without interruption of processing, e.g. endpoint detection, in-situ thickness measurement endpoint detection arrangements in CMP apparatus B24B37/013, in discharge apparatus H01J37/32
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00

Abstract

An apparatus for temperature control of manufacture of thick film materials includes a stage comprising a planar surface for supporting a bulk material to be implanted and subsequently cleaved. The bulk material has a surface region, a side region, and a bottom region which provides a volume of material and defines a length between the bottom region and the surface region. The apparatus further includes a mechanical clamp device adapted to engage the bottom region to the planar surface of the stage such that the bulk material is in physical contact with the planar surface for thermal energy to transfer through an interface region between the bulk material and the stage while the surface region is substantially exposed. Additionally, the apparatus includes a sensor device configured to measure a temperature value of the surface region and generate an input data. The apparatus further includes an implant device configured to perform implantation of a plurality of particles through one or more portions of the surface region of the bulk material and a controller configured to receive and process the input data to increase and/or decrease the temperature value of the surface region through at least the interface region between the planar surface of the stage and the bottom region of the bulk material.

Claims

1. An apparatus for temperature control of manufacture of thick film materials, the apparatus comprising:

a stage comprising a planar surface for supporting a bulk material to be implanted, the bulk material having a surface region, a side region, and a bottom region, the side region, bottom region, and the surface region providing a volume of material, the volume of material having a length defined between the bottom region and the surface region;

a mechanical clamp device adapted to engage the bottom region of the bulk material to the planar surface of the stage such that the bulk material is in physical contact with the planar surface for thermal energy to transfer through an interface region between the bulk material and the planar surface of the stage while the surface region of the bulk material is substantially exposed;

a sensor device configured to measure a temperature value of the surface region, the sensor device being adapted to generate an input data;

an implant device configured to perform implantation of a plurality of particles through one or more portions of the surface region of the bulk material; and

a controller configured to receive the input data and process the input data to increase and/or decrease the temperature value of the surface region of the bulk material through at least the interface region between the planar surface of the stage and the bottom region of the bulk material.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mechanical clamp device is configured to engage one or more grooves on the side region of the bulk material for clamping the bulk material on the planar surface of the stage, wherein the one or more grooves are present in one of a side of an adapter plate or in a homogenous portion of the bulk material.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the one or more grooves on the side region may be connected to surround the side region or may be three or more isolated grooves on the side region with proper locations for stable clamping.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the one or more grooves for clamping the bulk material are located within 30% of the length of the bulk material from the bottom region allowing the 70% bulk material from the surface region to be cleaved without interference with said grooves.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the surface region of the bulk material comprises a planarized surface to facilitate the implant process.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the bottom region of the bulk material comprises a planarized surface for engaging with the planar surface of the stage.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interface region formed as the bulk material engaged with the stage by the mechanical clamp device comprises a cavity with a height enclosed by a close-looped seal between at least part of the bottom region of the bulk material and part of the planar surface of the stage.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the close-looped seal is located near the edge vicinity of the bottom region of the bulk material.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the cavity height may range from 3 microns to 200 microns.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the planar surface of the stage within the cavity comprises one or more gas passageways connected to a gas supply/pump assembly.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the one or more gas passageways allow a gas filled into the cavity with an adjustable pressure.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the gas may be helium or hydrogen.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the gas may be argon or nitrogen.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the adjustable pressure may be gauged from 1 Torr to 300 Torr.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the gas may be supplied at cryogenic or room temperature, or being heated.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the stage is a dielectric chuck configured to provide electrostatic force to attract the bulk material.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the planar surface of the stage comprises an area and a shape substantially the same as the bottom region of the bulk material.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the stage further comprises a fluid cooling and heating unit attached to its bottom.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the stage further comprises an inductive heater to heat the bulk material.

20. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the stage is mounted on a tray that allows scanning of the implant beam across the tray.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the bulk material to be cleaved comprises at least one of single crystalline silicon or germanium ingot, polycrystalline silicon tile, multi-crystalline silicon tile, or compound semiconductor ingot or tile.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the sensor device comprises one or more temperature sensors, a position sensor, a pressure sensor, and a surface roughness sensor.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the sensor device is capable of updating the input data about the temperature value of the surface region and the length of the bulk material after removing each of the one or more free-standing thick films by the cleaving process.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the sensor device further is capable of measuring the surface roughness after each cleaving process to determine whether the post-cleaving surface region of the bulk material is smooth enough for next implant process, otherwise, to perform certain surface smoothening process.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the surface smoothening process comprises at least one of surface re-lapping, ion-sputtering, etching, depositing a smooth layer, and in-situ annealing processes.

26. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the implant device comprises a linear accelerator, the linear accelerator comprising one or more radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) elements and one or more drift tube linear accelerator (DTL) elements or a combination RFQ and DTL elements.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the linear accelerator may accelerate ionic particles to an energy ranging from 1 MeV to 5 MeV to form a particle beam for performing a cleaving process.

28. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the linear accelerator further comprises a beam expander located at an exit aperture, the beam expander capable of expanding a beam size of the particle beam up to 50 cm or further comprising beam scanner device.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the ionic particles comprise hydrogen species.

30. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the ionic particles comprise deuterium species.

31. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the implant device is at least configured to:

introduce a first plurality of particles at a first temperature to form a defect region within a vicinity of a cleave region; and

introduce a second plurality of particles at a second temperature into the defect region to increase a stress level from a first value to a second value.

32. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the first temperature ranges from about −

100 Degree Celsius to about 250 Degree Celsius.

33. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the second temperature is greater than about 250 Degree Celsius and no greater than 550 Degrees Celsius.

34. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the implant device is configured to further perform a treatment process after introducing the first plurality of particles and before introducing the second plurality of particles, the treatment process comprising a thermal process provided at a third temperature of 400 Degree Celsius or higher to render the defect region to be close to the cleave region and stabilize the defect region.

35. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the implant device is configured to further perform a cleave process after introducing the second plurality of particles, the cleave process comprising annealing the cleave region and removing a free-standing film from the bulk material at the cleave region.

36. The apparatus of claim 35 wherein each of the one or more free-standing thick films cleaved from the bulk material ranges from 15 microns to 200 micron in thickness.

37. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the controller comprises a control electronics capable of performing multiple control tasks and process operations managed by a computer system by running a plurality of corresponding control codes.

38. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein the controller may be configured to execute a first control code for the operation of an implant device including at least adjustments of duty factor, particle power level, beam profile, and dose rate, or be configured to execute a first code for operation of the implant including at least adjustments of a power level, beam profile, scanning speed, a pattern, and dose rate for a scanning process.

39. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein the controller may be configured to execute a second control code for commanding the mechanical clamp device to handle the bulk material such that substantial volume from the surface region of the bulk material can be processed without physical interference by the clamp device and/or commanding the sensor device to monitor the state of the bulk material during process.

40. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein the controller is further configured to execute a third control code for temperature control of bulk material during process by balancing a cooling of the stage assisted with a gas-layer interface and the heating from the implant particle and one or more external radiant heat sources.

41. The apparatus of claim 40 wherein the one or more external radiant heat sources comprise a plurality of two-dimensionally distributed flash lamps, each flash lamp being independently operated by the controller to tune at least one of pulse rate and intensity.

42. The apparatus of claim 40 wherein the one or more external radiant heat sources located above the surface region of the bulk material include one or more sources with slowly varying thermal power flux rate to heat the surface region of the bulk material with a less than 20°

C. surface-to-bottom temperature difference.

43. The apparatus of claim 40 wherein the one or more external radiant heat sources located above the surface region of the bulk material include one or more sources with rapidly varying thermal power flux rate to heat the surface region of the bulk material faster than a thermal conduction time constant for the surface region.

44. The apparatus of claim 43 wherein the source with rapidly varying thermal power flux rate is a pulsed laser.

45. The apparatus of claim 44 wherein the pulsed laser is a YAG or YLF Q-switched laser.

130. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the linear accelerator comprises a DC linear accelerator.

46. An apparatus of mounting a bulk material for manufacture of one or more thick films, the apparatus comprising:

a stage comprising a planar surface for supporting the bulk material, the bulk material having a planarized surface region, a planarized end region, and a side region having a length from the surface region to the end region; and

a mechanical clamp device adapted to engage the planarized end region of the bulk material with the planar surface of the stage such that the surface region and at least 70% length of the side region from the surface region is substantially exposed and can be cleaved for manufacture of one or more thick films without interference of the clamp device.

47. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the engaged planar surface of the stage and the bottom region of the bulk material forms an interface region comprising a cavity with a height enclosed by a close-looped gas-tight seal located around the edge of the bottom region.

48. The apparatus of claim 47 wherein the planar surface of the stage within the cavity comprises a plurality of gas passageways connected to a gas supply/pump assembly.

49. The apparatus of claim 48 wherein the plurality of gas passageways allow a gas filled into the cavity with an adjustable pressure.

50. The apparatus of claim 49 wherein the gas may be helium, hydrogen, argon, or nitrogen.

51. The apparatus of claim 49 wherein the adjustable pressure may be gauged from 1 Torr to 300 Torr.

52. The apparatus of claim 49 wherein the gas may be supplied at cryogenic or room temperature, or being heated.

53. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the close-looped seal comprises an O-ring or metal flange that substantially resemble to the shape of the bottom region of the bulk material including essentially symmetric polygonal or circular shape.

54. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the stage is a dielectric chuck configured to provide electrostatic force to attract the bulk material.

55. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the stage further comprises a fluid cooling and heating unit attached to its bottom.

56. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the stage further comprises an inductive heater to heat the bulk material.

57. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the mechanical clamp device is part of a robot capable of performing removable clamping.

58. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the mechanical clamp device is adapted to removably clamp the bulk material on the stage by utilizing one or more grooves on the side region or one or more holding means on the bottom region of the bulk material.

59. A method for temperature control during a process of cleaving a plurality of free-standing thick films from a bulk material, the method comprising:

providing a bulk material for cleaving, the bulk material having a surface region, a bottom region, a side region having a length from the surface region to the bottom region;

clamping the bulk material using a mechanical clamp device adapted to engage the bottom region of the bulk material through a seal with a planar surface of a stage to form a cavity with a height between the bottom region and the planar surface, the planar surface comprising a plurality of gas passageways allowing a gas filled in the cavity with adjustable pressure;

sensing the state of the bulk material to generate an input data, the input data comprising temperature information at the surface region and the bottom region and the length of the bulk material between the surface region and the bottom region;

maintaining the temperature of the surface region by processing at least the input data and executing a control scheme utilizing at least one or more of;

particle bombardment to heat the surface region;

radiation to heat the surface region; and

gas-assisted conduction between the bottom region and the stage.

60. The method of claim 59 wherein the stage further comprises inductive heating of the bulk material in the control scheme.

61. The method of claim 59 wherein the bulk material comprises at least one of single crystalline silicon or germanium ingot, polycrystalline silicon tile, multi-crystalline silicon tile, and compound semiconductor ingot or tile.

62. The method of claim 59 wherein the bulk material is preprocessed to planarize the surface region for facilitating the cleaving process.

63. The method of claim 59 wherein the clamping of the bulk material by the mechanical clamp device is performed such that the surface region and at least 70% of the bulk material from the surface region are substantially exposed for cleaving thick films without interference of the clamp device.

64. The method of claim 63 wherein the mechanical clamp is a part of a robot capable of performing removable clamping.

65. The method of claim 63 wherein the mechanical clamp also electrically connects to the bulk material to heat the bulk material through Joule heating.

66. The method of claim 63 wherein the seal is gas-tight and secured enough to sustain gas pressure up to 300 Torr in the cavity.

67. The method of claim 66 wherein the seal comprises an O-ring or a dielectric flange or a metal flange.

68. The method of claim 66 wherein the gas supplied in the cavity comprises at least one gas of hydrogen, helium, argon, or nitrogen.

69. The method of claim 66 wherein the gas supplied in the cavity can be a cryogenic gas, room temperature gas, or a heated gas.

70. The method of claim 59 wherein the planar surface of the stage comprises an area and shape substantially the same as the bottom region of the bulk material.

71. The method of claim 70 wherein the stage is an electrostatic chuck capable of generating electrostatic force to attract the bulk material.

72. The method of claim 70 wherein the stage further comprises a fluid temperature control unit attached to its bottom.

73. The method of claim 72 wherein the fluid temperature control unit utilizes a liquid or gas for cooling or heating the bulk material through the stage.

74. The apparatus of claim 59 wherein the stage and the mechanical clamp device are both mounted on a tray that allows X-Y two dimensional move.

75. The method of claim 59 wherein sensing the state of the bulk material comprising using a plurality of sensors including temperature sensor, position sensor, pressure sensor, and/or surface roughness probe.

76. The method of claim 75 wherein the temperature sensor comprises one or more optical pyrometers or thermocouples performing temperature measurement.

77. The method of claim 75 wherein the position sensor is capable of tracking the length of the bulk material after each free-standing thick film being removed from the bulk material by the progressive cleaving process.

78. The method of claim 75 wherein the surface roughness probe is capable of performing in-situ measurement of a roughness value of the surface region after cleaving each free-standing thick film from the bulk material.

79. The method of claim 78 wherein the cleaving process may continue, if the roughness parameter meets a pre-set criterion;

otherwise, the cleaving process is paused for repairing the surface region.

80. The method of claim 79 wherein the surface region of the bulk material is repaired at least by one process of ion particle bombardment, etching, or depositing a smooth layer on the surface region.

81. The method of claim 59 wherein the utilizing radiation to heat the surface region comprising using an external radiant heat source located above the surface region.

82. The method of claim 81 wherein the radiant heat source comprises a plurality of flash lamps with a controlled power supply, pulse rate, and spatial distribution.

83. The method of claim 81 wherein the external radiant heat source comprises one or more sources with slowly varying thermal power flux rate to heat the surface region of the bulk material with a less than 20°

C. surface-to-bottom temperature difference.

84. The method of claim 81 wherein the external radiant heat source comprises one or more sources with rapidly varying thermal power flux rate to heat the surface region of the bulk material faster than a thermal conduction time constant for the surface region.

85. The method of claim 84 wherein the source with rapidly varying thermal power flux rate is a pulsed laser.

86. The method of claim 85 wherein the pulsed laser is a YAG or YLF Q-switched laser.

87. The method of claim 59 wherein the utilizing particle bombardment to heat the surface region comprising using a power flux from an ionic particle beam generated by an implant device.

88. The method of claim 87 wherein the power flux from an ionic particle beam can be adjusted by changing a duty factor of the implant device.

89. The method of claim 88 wherein the duty factor can be adjusted by an electromagnetic scanning device.

90. The method of claim 59 wherein the utilizing the gas-assisted conduction between the bottom region and the stage to cool the bottom region comprising adjusting the gas pressure in the cavity to control the thermal power transfer.

91. The method of claim 59 wherein the cavity height may range from 3 microns to 200 microns

92. The method of claim 59 wherein the cleaving process to progressively remove one or more free-standing thick films from the bulk material comprising introducing a first plurality of particles to form a defect region within a vicinity of a cleave region at a first temperature and introducing a second plurality of particles into the defect region at a second temperature to cause an increase of stress of the cleave region from a first value to a second value.

93. The method of claim 92 wherein the first plurality of particles comprises at least one species of hydrogen, deuterium, or helium.

94. The method of claim 93 wherein the first plurality of particles are provided at a dose of 8×

10¹⁶ per cm² and less.

95. The method of claim 92 wherein the second plurality of particles comprises at least one species of hydrogen, deuterium, or helium.

96. The method of claim 92 wherein the second plurality of particles are provided at a dose of 5×

10¹⁶ per cm² and less.

97. The method of claim 92 wherein the introducing of the plurality of particles is provided using a linear accelerator process, the linear accelerator process comprising using a plurality of radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) elements and a plurality of drift tube linear accelerator (DTL) elements or a combination of both to confine and accelerate said particles.

98. The method of claim 97 wherein the plurality of particles are provided in an energy ranging from 1 MeV to 5 MeV.

99. The method of claim 92 further comprising a treatment process after introducing the first plurality of particles and before introducing the second plurality of particles, the treatment process comprising a thermal process provided at a temperature of 400 Degree Celsius or higher to render the defect region to be close to the cleave region and stabilize the defect region.

100. The method of claim 92 wherein the first temperature ranges from about −

100 Degree Celsius to about 250 Degree Celsius.

101. The method of claim 92 wherein the first temperature is less than about 250 Degree Celsius.

102. The method of claim 92 wherein the second temperature is greater than about 250 Degree Celsius and no greater than 550 Degrees Celsius.

103. The method of claim 59 wherein the cleaving process to progressively remove one or more free-standing thick films from the bulk material further comprising repeatedly producing a plurality of free-standing thick films of the bulk material with a thickness greater than about 15 microns and less than 200 microns.

104. The method of claim 103 wherein the cleaving process is a thermal cleaving process to remove the film.

105. The method of claim 103 wherein the cleaving process is a controlled cleaving process (CCP) utilizing vertical thermal gradient to remove the film.

106. The method of claim 105 wherein the vertical thermal gradient is made using one or more of a group comprising a pulsed laser system, a pulsed flash lamp, a pulsed ion beam, convection heat transfer generated, and conduction heat transfer generated.

107. The method of claim 103 wherein the cleaving process is a controlled cleaving process (CCP) utilizing horizontal temperature/strain gradient to remove the film.

108. The method of claim 59 wherein the cleaving process to progressively remove one or more free-standing thick films from the bulk material further comprising using implant dose gradients to cause the cleaving preferentially starting at the higher dose.

109. The method of claim 108 wherein the ion implant source may also be used to create a patterned implant having a high dose region configured to initiate cleaving alone or upon exposure to additional energy.

110. The method of claim 59 wherein the cleaving process to progressively remove one or more free-standing thick films from the bulk material further comprising performing surface treatment on the free-standing thick film to remove surface cracks and reduce the surface roughness of the remaining bulk material.

111. The method of claim 59 wherein the particle bombardment creates a patterned implant having portions of sufficiently high dose to initiate cleaving alone or upon application of thermal energy.

112. The method of claim 59 wherein the mechanical clamp engages a groove in a homogenous portion of the bulk material, or engages a groove in an adapter plate in contact with the homogenous portion.

113. A method for processing semiconductor materials for thick film transfer, the method comprising:

providing a bulk semiconductor material onto a planar surface of a stage, the bulk semiconductor material having a surface region, a side region, and a bottom region, the side region, bottom region, and the surface region providing a volume of material, the volume of material having a length defined between the bottom region and the surface region, the bottom region coupled to the planar surface;

securing the bulk semiconductor material using a mechanical clamp device adapted to engage the bottom surface of the bulk material to the planar surface of the stage such that the bulk material is in physical contact with the planar surface to cause thermal energy to transfer between the bulk material and the planar surface of the stage while the surface region of the bulk material is substantially exposed; and

processing the surface region of the bulk material while the surface region is substantially exposed and maintained on the planar surface of the stage with the mechanical clamp device.

114. A method for progressively cleaving free-standing films from a bulk material, the method comprising:

securing the bulk material on a stage using a mechanical clamp device, the bulk material having a surface region, a side region, and a bottom region, the surface region being continuous with the side region and oriented at an angle of about 90 Degrees from the side region to define a volume, the mechanical clamp device being adapted to couple with the bottom region and/or the side region of the bulk material so that the bottom region is firmly engaged with the stage;

maintaining the surface region substantially free from any physical interference in a direction normal to the surface region;

processing at least the surface region while the surface region is substantially free from any physical interference from the processing of the surface region; and

selectively maintaining a temperature of the surface region during the processing of the surface region.

115. The method of claim 114 wherein bulk material comprises at least one of single crystalline silicon or germanium ingot, polycrystalline silicon tile, multi-crystalline silicon tile, or compound semiconductor ingot or tile.

116. The method of claim 114 wherein the stage comprises a planar surface for firmly engaging the bottom region of the bulk material through a seal between the planar surface and the bottom region.

117. The method of claim 116 wherein the seal is a close-looped gas-tight seal capable of forming a gas-filled cavity between the stage and the bottom region.

118. The method of claim 116 wherein the planar surface of the stage comprises a plurality of gas passageways connected to a gas supply assembly in the stage.

119. The method of claim 116 wherein the stage is an electrostatic chuck capable of generating electrostatic force to attract the bulk material.

120. The method of claim 114 wherein the mechanical clamp device are engaged with the bulk material through one or arms at location at least below 30% length of the side region from the bottom region or at the bottom region.

121. The method claim 120 wherein the one or more arms have smooth surfaces adapted to the shape of the bulk material.

122. The method of claim 114 wherein the stage and the mechanical clamp device are both mounted on a tray that allows X-Y two dimensional move parallel to the stage.

123. The method of claim 114 wherein maintaining the surface region substantially free from any physical interference in a direction normal to the surface region comprising exposing 100% area of the surface region including all edges for processing.

124. The method of claim 114 wherein processing at least the surface region while the surface region is substantially free from any physical interference from the processing of the surface region further comprising an implant process by introducing a plurality of particles to form a defect region within a vicinity of a cleave region with a desired depth underneath the surface region.

125. The method of claim 124 wherein processing at least the surface region while the surface region is substantially free from any physical interference from the processing of the surface region further comprising performing thermal treatment and controlled cleaving to remove a first film from the cleave region out of the bulk material.

126. The method of claim 125 wherein processing at least the surface region while the surface region is substantially free from any physical interference from the processing of the surface region further comprising repeating the implant process and cleave process to remove a second or more films out of at least 70% volume of the bulk material without any physical interference.

127. The method of claim 114 wherein selectively maintaining a temperature of the surface region during the processing of the surface region comprising maintaining a temperature at either the surface region, at the overlying film above the cleave region, or at the both.

128. The method of claim 114 wherein selectively maintaining a temperature of the surface region during the processing of the surface region comprising increasing the temperature of the surface region by utilizing at least one of radiation from implant ionic particles, one or more external radiant source including CW source or pulsed heat source, Joule heat passed from the clamp device, or decreasing the temperature by cooling the bottom region of the bulk material via gas-assisted conduction from the bottom region to the stage.

129. A system for processing bulk materials, the system including a mechanical clamp device adapted to secure a bulk material on a stage, the bulk material having a surface region, a side region, and a bottom region, the surface region being continuous with the side region and oriented at an angle of about 90 Degrees from the side region to define a volume, the mechanical clamp device being adapted to couple with the bottom region and/or the side region of the bulk material so that the bottom region is firmly engaged with the stage, while the surface region is maintained substantially free from any physical interference in a direction normal to the surface region, the system including one or more computer readable memories, the computer readable memories including:

one or more codes directed to initiating a program to process at least the surface region while the surface region is substantially free from any physical interference from the processing of the surface region; and

one or more codes directed to selectively maintaining a temperature of the surface region during the processing of the surface region.