Lam Research Corporation

Anthony Paul Van Selow

Jack Chen

Xuefeng Hua

Goon Heng Wong

Daniel Torres

A system for determining a thickness of a substrate arranged in a processing chamber includes an emitter configured to transmit a signal toward a gap between the substrate and a component of the processing chamber arranged above the substrate, a receiver configured to receive at least a portion of the transmitted signal and generate a measurement signal based on a characteristic of the received portion of the signal, and a system controller configured to receive the measurement signal and selectively adjust a parameter of the processing chamber based on a relationship between values of the measurement signal and at least one of the thickness of the substrate, a width of the gap between the substrate and the component of the processing chamber, and an amount to adjust the parameter of the processing chamber.

In-situ wafer thickness and gap monitoring using through beam laser sensor

A substrate processing system to process a substrate includes a sensor to generate sensed values of a parameter of the substrate processing system. An actuator adjusts the parameter of the substrate processing system. A controller communicates with the sensor and the actuator and is configured to process a first substrate using the sensed values to adjust control values for controlling the actuator without feedforward control during a process. The sensed values are delayed and cause instability in the parameter. The controller is further configured to automatically calibrate feedforward values for processing a second substrate based on the sensed values and the control values and process the second substrate while controlling the actuator using the feedforward values.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Anthony Paul Van Selow