Hughes Aircraft Company

Michael P Power

Anthony M Ledger

Richard R Poole

Lynn David Bollinger

George J Gardopee

A transparent chuck is used to force a semiconductor wafer to take a prescribed shape. Any gap which is formed between the chuck and the wafer can be imaged through the transparent chuck. An interferometer is used to illuminate the gap with a narrow band illumination to create interference fringes in the gap. The fringes can be electronically imaged to create a digital input to a computer. Merit functions corresponding to the total volume of fringes in the gap or to the summation of nearest neighbor slopes of such fringes provide a measure of the thickness of such gap.

Transparent optical chuck incorporating optical monitoring

A support and positioning apparatus (10) for supporting and positioning a wafer (12), substrate or the like in a plasma assisted chemical etching process. Surround components (14, 16, 18, 20) positioned around the substrate (12) are comprised of substantially pure magnesium or are aluminum coated with a magnesium fluoride coating such that as a plasma tool associated with the plasma etching process traverses the edge of the substrate (12), the plasma etching environment generated from a fluorine containing feed gas emitted from the plasma tool does not significantly erode the surround components (14, 16, 18, 20) or cause contamination of the substrate (12).

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Newtown, CT, United States of America

Michael P Power