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:
Oct. 14, 1998
Robert H. Fuerhoff, St. Charles, MO (US);
Mohsen Banan, Grover, MO (US);
Memc Electronic Materials, Inc., St. Peters, MO (US);
Abstract
A method and system for determining melt level and reflector position in a Czochralski single crystal growing apparatus. The crystal growing apparatus has a heated crucible containing a silicon melt from which the crystal is pulled. The crystal growing apparatus also has a reflector positioned within the crucible with a central opening through which the crystal is pulled. A camera generates images of a portion of the reflector and a portion of a reflection of the reflector visible on the top surface of the melt. An image processor processes the images as a function of their pixel values to detect an edge of the reflector and an edge of the reflection in the images. A control circuit determines a distance from the camera to the reflector and a distance from the camera to the reflection based on the relative positions of the detected edges in the images. The control circuit determines at least one parameter representative of a condition of the crystal growing apparatus based on the determined distances and controls the apparatus in response to the determined parameter.