Applied Materials, Inc.

Arun Ramaswamy Srivatsa

Zhiming Jiang

Ming Hong Yang

Xiaodong Zhang

Nedal Saleh

Dimitry Kouzminov

Methods leverage premixed gas mixtures to perform a metrology process on a substrate using an inline secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) process. The premixed gas mixture of two or more gases is injected into a plasma chamber that is configured to produce sputtering ions for the inline SIMS process. The two or more gases produce non-metallic ion species which are compatible with downstream substrate fabrication processes and allow further fabrication to be performed on the substrate after the inline SIMS process has completed. The sputtering ions are ejected from the plasma chamber into a magnetic field. The intensity of the magnetic field is altered to select a single species of ions. The single species of ions are directed towards a surface of the substrate and secondary ions sputtered from the surface of the substrate by the selected species of ions are detected and analyzed.

Multiple plasma ion source for inline secondary ion mass spectrometry

The methods and apparatus provide phase-resolved optical metrology for determining qualities of a substrate and films thereon. Transmitted and reflected signals are coupled using both amplitude and phase information to improve the metrology information obtained from film layers on the substrate.

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Arun Ramaswamy Srivatsa