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:
Sep. 19, 2023
Filed:
Jun. 22, 2022
Applicant:
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;
Inventors:
Assignee:
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B 11/06 (2006.01); G01Q 60/24 (2010.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B 11/0616 (2013.01); G01Q 60/24 (2013.01);
Abstract
A method of evaluating a thickness of a film on a substrate includes detecting atomic force responses of the film to exposure of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The use of atomic force microscopy to evaluate thicknesses of thin films avoids underlayer noise commonly encountered when optical metrology techniques are utilized to evaluate film thicknesses. Such underlayer noise adversely impacts the accuracy of the thickness evaluation.