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:
Aug. 18, 1998
Filed:
Nov. 29, 1995
Kent B Pfeifer, Los Lunas, NM (US);
Andrea E Hoyt, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Gregory C Frye, Cedar Crest, NM (US);
Sandia Corporation, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Abstract
The acoustic-wave sensor. The acoustic-wave sensor is designed for ambient or vapor-phase monitoring of a photoresist-stripping agent such as N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP), ethoxyethylpropionate (EEP) or the like. The acoustic-wave sensor comprises an acoustic-wave device such as a surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) device, a flexural-plate-wave (FPW) device, an acoustic-plate-mode (APM) device, or a thickness-shear-mode (TSM) device (also termed a quartz crystal microbalance or QCM) having a sensing region on a surface thereof. The sensing region includes a sensing film for sorbing a quantity of the photoresist-stripping agent, thereby altering or shifting a frequency of oscillation of an acoustic wave propagating through the sensing region for indicating an ambient concentration of the agent. According to preferred embodiments of the invention, the acoustic-wave device is a SAW device; and the sensing film comprises poly(vinylacetate), poly(N-vinylpyrrolidinone), or poly(vinylphenol).