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:
Nov. 04, 1997
Filed:
Oct. 31, 1995
Akira Shiokawa, Osaka, JP;
Hideaki Yasui, Osaka, JP;
Koichi Kotera, Osaka, JP;
Yuuji Mukai, Osaka, JP;
Hiroyoshi Tanaka, Kyoto, JP;
Takashi Hirao, Osaka, JP;
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A beam emitted from a light source including the characteristic wavelength of flown particles in a film forming system is interrupted by a beam chopper in a predetermined cycle, and is then divided into a probing beam and a reference beam by a beam divider. The probing beam passes through a particle flight area and is then injected into a photo detector through an optical filter, and a probing signal is outputted. A reference signal is obtained from the reference beam in the same manner. A data processor detects the phase and level of both signals, so that an absorbance, i.e., a film forming rate for the flown particles is estimated. The film forming rate is integrated with time so that a film thickness is estimated. Thus, the range of the applicable film forming rate is wide. In addition, it is possible to perform continuous monitoring with high precision also in an atmosphere where a large amount of light having the same wavelength as the characteristic wavelength of the flown particles is generated, as in sputtering systems.