or boron nitride such a partially conductive ceramic material promotes the johnsen rahbek effect which retains the wafer during high temperature processing other partially conductive ceramics also form useful high temperature chuck materials such as alumina doped with a titanium oxide or a chromium oxide if the chuck is to be used at low temperatures only then other ceramic and or dielectric materials such as alumina are used to form the chuck body an illustrative ceramic electrostatic chuck is disclosed in commonly assigned u s pat no 5 511 799 issued apr 30 1996 herein incorporated by reference examples of non ceramic electrostatic chucks are disclosed in u s pat no 4 184 188 issued jan 15 1980 and u s pat no 4 384 918 issued may 24 1983 both of which are incorporated herein by reference the stand off pad 102 is comprised of a plurality of islands 206 positioned on the support surface 114 of the chuck 100 typically each island has a diameter of approximately 10 200 u03bcm spaced equidistantly from one another and depending upon the size and spacing of the islands contact between 5 to 75 of the underside surface of the wafer preferably the islands contact approximately 10 to 25 of the surface area of the wafer generally the number spacing and size of the islands is determined by the amount of clamping force applied by the electrostatic chuck for example if the amount of force is large and the islands are spaced relatively distant from one another the wafer may bow.