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:
Jan. 09, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 15, 1998
Applicant:
Inventors:
Hiroyuki Ueda, Narita, JP;
Hirotaka Tanabe, Narita, JP;
Makoto Okubo, Narita, JP;
Shankar Chandran, Milpitas, CA (US);
Ellie Yieh, Milbrae, CA (US);
Assignee:
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B08B 9/00 ; H01L 2/1306 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B08B 9/00 ; H01L 2/1306 ;
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for detecting the end point of a process by monitoring the position of a valve during the process. In one aspect, a cleaning process is performed in the chamber, and a controller monitors the valve position to determine the end point of the process which corresponds to a decrease in the number of steps in the valve position required to achieve a stable throttle valve position after the cleaning process is complete.