Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Applied Materials, Inc.

James R McLane

Joseph C Olson

Jason M Schaller

Robert Brent Vopat

Russell J Low

Jonathan Gerald England

Steven M Anella

D Jeffrey Lischer

Dawei Sun

Eric D Wilson

David R Timberlake

Bradley M Pomerleau

James J Cummings

Han Zhang

Mark D Saunders

Thomas B Callahan

A method may include heating a substrate in a first chamber to a platen temperature, the heating comprising heating the substrate on a platen; measuring the platen temperature in the first chamber using a contact temperature measurement; transferring the substrate to a second chamber after the heating; and measuring a voltage decay after transferring the substrate to the second chamber, using an optical pyrometer to measure pyrometer voltage as a function of time.

Method and apparatus for calibration of substrate temperature using pyrometer

A robot calibration method which aligns the coordinate system of a gantry module with the coordinate system of a camera system is disclosed. The method includes using an alignment tool, which allows the operator to place workpieces in locations known by the gantry module. An image is then captured of these workpieces by the camera system. A controller uses the information from the gantry module and the camera system to determine the relationship between the two coordinate systems. It then determines a transformation equation to convert from one coordinate system to the other.

Robot calibration method

A plurality of autonomous control processes, with each controlling one or more components of the material transport (or processing) system, is used to radically simplify the controller software. Each autonomous control process is responsible for the actions of only a subset of the cluster tool components. For example, in one embodiment, a separate autonomous control process is used to control each automated component in the material handling system. However, other embodiments in which a control process controls a plurality of components are also contemplated.

Material transport systems using autonomous controls

An ion implanter includes a source of a stationary, planar ion beam, a set of beamline components that steer the ion beam along a normal beam path as determined by first operating parameter values, an end station that mechanically scans the wafer across the normal beam path, and control circuitry that responds to a glitch in the ion beam during implantation pass to (1) immediately alter an operating parameter of at least one of the beamline components to a second value to direct the ion beam away from the normal beam path and thereby cease implantation at an implantation transition location on the wafer, (2) subsequently move the wafer to an implantation-resuming position in which the implantation transition location on the wafer lies directly on the normal path of the ion beam, and (3) return the operating parameter to its first value to direct the ion beam along the normal beam path and resume ion implantation at the implantation transition location on the wafer. The operating parameter may be an output voltage of an extraction power supply, or other voltages and/or currents of beamline components that affect the path of the ion beam.

Methods and apparatus for glitch recovery in stationary-beam ion implantation process using fast ion beam control

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Beverly, MA, United States of America

James R McLane