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:
Feb. 02, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 17, 1997
Yen-Kun Wang, Fremont, CA (US);
Fong Chang, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Thanh Pham, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeff Plante, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for controlling the flow of a liquid precursor into a deposition chamber comprises a liquid injection system having a liquid injection outlet connected to a chamber inlet line upstream of the deposition chamber. The liquid injection system includes a liquid precursor supply, a purge gas supply, a carrier gas supply, a liquid flow meter, and a controller managing flows of the liquid precursor and carrier gas to the chamber. A purge line is connected between the purge gas supply and the liquid flow meter and is used to trap a known mass of liquid precursor. To calibrate the flow of the liquid precursor, the purge gas is used to push the trapped liquid precursor through the liquid flow meter at a steady rate. The elapsed time for evacuating the trapped liquid precursor from the purge line is measured. Calibration information is computed using the mass of the trapped liquid precursor and the measured elapsed time based on the direct liquid measurement approach. The calibration information is used to calibrate the controller to correct deviations in the liquid flow rate and achieve a target liquid precursor flow rate for improving wafer uniformity.