The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 24, 2018
Filed:
Mar. 02, 2016
Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Andrew D. Bailey, III, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Mehmet Derya Tetiker, San Francisco, CA (US);
Duncan W. Mills, Mountain View, CA (US);
Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
Monitoring a geometric parameter value for one or more features produced on a substrate during an etch process may involve: (a) measuring optical signals produced by optical energy interacting with features being etched on the substrate; (b) providing a subset of the measured optical signals, wherein the subset is defined by a range where optical signals were determined to correlate with target geometric parameter values for features; (c) applying the subset of optical signals to a model configured to predict the target geometric parameter values from the measured optical signals; (d) determining, from the model, a current value of the target geometric parameter of the features being etched; (e) comparing the current value of the target geometric parameter of the features being etched to an etch process endpoint value for the target geometric parameter; and (f) repeating (a)-(e) until the comparing in (e) indicates that the current value of the target geometric parameter of the features being etched has reached the endpoint value.