A method for selectively coating the tops of pins of a pin chuck with a high thermal stability material, such as diamond-like carbon (DLC). Non-pin areas (“valleys”) of the pin chuck support surface are temporarily covered with glass frit or glass beads during the DLC coating operation. After coating, the glass frit/beads masking material may be removed, leaving the DLC material selectively coating the pin tops. The selective DLC coating avoids the cracking or warping problems due to CTE mismatch when DLC is coated over the entire pin chuck support surface, as the pin chuck material typically is very different from DLC.