Kla Tencor Corporation

Kla Corporation

Farhat A Quli

Mei H Sun

Earl M Jensen

Andrew Nguyen

James Richard Bella

Stephen Sharratt

Kevin O'Brien

Paul Arleo

Vaibhaw Vishal

Ran Liu

Paul A Konicek

Razieh Mahzoon

Vasudev Venkatesan

A process condition measurement wafer assembly is disclosed. In embodiments, the process condition measurement wafer assembly includes a bottom substrate and a top substrate. In another embodiment, the process condition measurement wafer assembly includes one or more electronic components disposed on one or more printed circuit elements and interposed between the top substrate and bottom substrate. In another embodiment, the process condition measurement wafer assembly includes one or more shielding layers formed between the bottom substrate and the top substrate. In embodiments, the one or more shielding layers are configured to electromagnetically shield the one or more electronic components and diffuse voltage potentials across the bottom substrate and the top substrate.

Process temperature measurement device fabrication techniques and methods of calibration and data interpolation of the same

A process condition sensing apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a substrate and an electronic enclosure including one or more electronic components. The apparatus includes a floating connection assembly configured to mechanically couple the electronic enclosure to the substrate, the floating connection assembly includes a leg and a foot. The leg or foot are arranged to mitigate thermal stress between one or more interfaces. The one or more interfaces include a leg-enclosure interface or a foot-substrate interface.

Mitigating thermal expansion mismatch in temperature probe construction apparatus and method

A reference substrate for calibrating high-energy inspection systems includes permanently affixed particle-emulating and/or integral void-type environmentally inert surface features that emulate particles/defects having sizes below about 18 nm. Particle-emulating surface features are fabricated directly onto the substrate's surface (or an intervening barrier film layer) using e-beam lithography or over-etch processing. Void-type defect features having sizes below 18 nm are etched into the substrate's surface using, for example, focused ion beam, reactive particle or pin-hole etching processes. Once formed, the actual size of each surface feature is measured (e.g., using SEM) and then recorded. During a subsequent inspection tool calibration session, the reference substrate is scanned and waveform data corresponding to light reflected/scattered from each surface feature is correlated with the scanned feature's actual size data. During subsequent inspection procedures, the sizes of detected particles/defects are determined by matching detected particle/defect waveform data with corresponding surface feature waveform data.

Method of fabricating particle size standards on substrates

A system and method are provided for fabricating semiconductor wafer features with controlled dimensions. In use, a top surface of a semiconductor wafer is identified. A first portion of the top surface of the semiconductor wafer is then vertically etched to form a step down from a second portion of the top surface of the semiconductor wafer, the step comprised of a horizontal face and a vertical sidewall. Additionally, a film is uniformly deposited across the horizontal face and the vertical sidewall of the step. Further, the second portion of the top surface of the semiconductor wafer is vertically etched to expose, as a feature of the semiconductor wafer, the film deposited across the vertical sidewall of the step.

System and method for fabricating semiconductor wafer features having controlled dimensions

A sensor wafer may be configured for in-situ measurements of parameters during an etch process. The sensor wafer may include a substrate, a cover, and one or more components positioned between the substrate and the cover. An etch-resistant coating is formed on one or more surfaces of the cover and/or substrate. The coating is configured to resist etch processes that etch the cover and/or substrate for a longer period than standard thin film materials of the same or greater thickness than the protective coating.

Etch-resistant coating on sensor wafers for in-situ measurement

A heat flux sensor equipped measurement wafer includes a substrate, a cover thermally coupled to a portion of the substrate, a sensor cavity formed between the substrate and the cover, a thermal barrier disposed within at least a portion of the sensor cavity, a bottom temperature sensor thermally coupled to the substrate and insulated from the cover by a portion of the thermal barrier and a top temperature sensor thermally coupled to the cover and insulated from the substrate by an additional portion of the thermal barrier, wherein a temperature difference between the bottom temperature sensor and the top temperature sensor is related to a heat flux passing through the substrate and cover proximate to the sensor cavity.

Method and system for measuring heat flux

A measurement unit comprising a light source and a photodetector may be formed in a cavity in a substrate. The light source produces light that impinges a material layer and is reflected back to the photodetector. Through methods such as interferometry and ellipsometry, the thickness of the material layer may be calculated from the light intensity data measured by the photodetector. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Film thickness monitor

Aspects of the present disclosure disclose a component module in a process condition measuring device comprises a support for supporting a component, one or more legs configured to suspend the support in a spaced-apart relationship with respect to a substrate. An electrically conductive or low-resistivity semiconductor enclosure is configured to enclose the component, the support and the legs between the substrate and the enclosure. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

High temperature sensor wafer for in-situ measurements in active plasma

A process condition measuring device (PCMD) may include first and second substrate components. One or more temperature sensors are embedded within each substrate component. The first and second substrate components are sandwiched together such that each temperature sensor in the second substrate component is aligned in tandem with a corresponding temperature sensor located in the first substrate component. Alternatively first and second temperature sensors may be positioned in parallel in the same substrate. Temperature differences may be measured between pairs of corresponding temperature sensors when the PCMD is subjected to process conditions in a workpiece processing tool. Process conditions in the tool may be calculated from the temperature differences.

Process condition measuring device (PCMD) and method for measuring process conditions in a workpiece processing tool configured to process production workpieces

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Castro Valley, CA, United States of America

Farhat A Quli