clara calif a precursor process gas such as silane dichlorosilane or tetraethylorthosilicate teos can be used to deposit the dielectric layer the dielectric material deposited on the electrostatic chuck is removed during chamber cleaning processes performed periodically and must be redeposited prior to positioning another substrate on the electrostatic chuck redepositing of the dielectric layer after each chamber cleaning step is an advantage since a uniform surface which is not altered by the deposition processes or chamber cleaning processes is provided on the electrostatic chuck the present invention further provides a substrate processing system comprising a plasma chamber comprising a plasma zone an electrostatic chuck comprising a wafer supporting surface for holding a substrate in the plasma zone and a vacuum system the processing system further comprises a source of one or more process gases one or more rf generators coupled to the plasma chamber for generating a plasma in the plasma zone and a controller to provide computer control of the system process steps are selected by a memory coupled to the controller the memory comprising a computer usable medium comprising a computer readable program code for selecting a process comprising the steps of cleaning the vacuum chamber with a plasma of one or.