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. 08, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 26, 1999
James J Colelli, Jr, Jericho, VT (US);
Randall A Leggett, Milton, VT (US);
Joseph Mundenar, Eden Prairie, MN (US);
Charles A Whiting, Milton, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
An arrangement and method for controlling individual zones of a hot plate which is employed in a post exposure bake step of wafers in the fabrication of semi-conductor devices incorporating photolithographic processes using chemically amplified resist systems. Provided is an in situ temperature-controllable hot plate which includes temperature-controllable surface zones for supporting a standard single wafer, and having loading means which orient the wafer on the hot plate. The hot plate may be segmented into an array of individually controllable heating zones, while mounted above the hot plate is a thermal detection array, such as an infrared(IR) camera or pyroelectric or pyrometric detector which functions to detect and scrutinize the wafer surface temperature with regard to specific locations dispersed across the hot plate surface. This particular data is mapped into the hot plate zones, and the mapped data transmitted into a servo for zonal hot plate adjustment and temperature control.