Lam Research Corporation

Charles Freund

Aleksander Owczarz

Yehiel Gotkis

Rodney C Kistler

Benjamin W Mooring

A method for minimizing measuring spot size and noise during film thickness measurement is provided. The method initiates with locating a first eddy current sensor directed toward a first surface associated with a conductive film. The method includes locating a second eddy current sensor directed toward a second surface associated with the conductive film. The first and second eddy current sensors may share a common axis or be offset from each other. The method further includes alternating power supplied to the first eddy current sensor and the second eddy current sensor, such that the first eddy current sensor and the second eddy current sensor are powered one at a time. In one aspect of the invention, a delay time is incorporated between switching power between the first eddy current sensor and the second eddy current sensor. The method also includes calculating the film thickness measurement based on a combination of signals from the first eddy current sensor and the second eddy current sensor. An apparatus and a system are also provided.

Method and apparatus of arrayed, clustered or coupled eddy current sensor configuration for measuring conductive film properties

A wafer is transported on a blade of a robot along a path through a port into a module of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The port has a transverse axis intersecting the path. Dynamic alignment uses two through-beam sensors positioned along the transverse axis to determine the position of the center of the wafer with respect to the center of the blade as the wafer is transported. Positioning of the sensors according to latency characteristics of the sensors assures that the moving wafer will break or make a beam of a first of the sensors and that the first sensor will generate a first transition signal before the moving wafer will break or make a beam of a second of the sensors and before the second sensor generates a second transition signal. The dynamic alignment may be performed with respect to wafers having different sizes.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Charles Freund