a processing system and upon which the alignment gauge 100 is placed to determine the alignment of the substrate support 300 with respect to the reference plane the alignment gauge 100 may be disposed atop a support surface 302 of the substrate support 300 or as shown may be disposed atop a ledge 304 that is adjacent to the support surface 302 of the substrate support 300 an adjustment mechanism 308 is provided to adjust the tilt of the support surface 302 for example jack bolts may be disposed about the substrate support 300 or about the support surface 302 to adjust the tilt of the support surface 302 by adjustment of the jack bolts alternatively or in combination a locking mechanism 310 may be provided to secure the support surface 302 in the desired position after checking and optionally adjusting the position or orientation of the support surface 302 with respect to the reference plane with the alignment gauge 100 fig4 is a flowchart showing a method 400 of aligning a substrate support in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure the method 400 generally begins at 402 where a substrate support such as the substrate support 300 shown in fig3 is installed inside a process chamber of a processing system at 404 an alignment gauge such as the alignment gauge 100 shown in fig1 3 is placed on the substrate support the alignment gauge may be placed on the substrate support before or after installation in the process chamber next at 406 tilt data measured by the alignment gauge is read from a display such as in.