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:
May. 28, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 27, 1999
Koji Eriguchi, Shiga, JP;
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
There is provided a clustered device for manufacturing a semiconductor device in which a cleaning chamber, a rapid thermal processing chamber, an optical measurement chamber, and the like are arranged around a load-lock room. In an optical measurement system, there are disposed an exciting light source, a measuring light source, a light detector, a control/analyze system, and the like. During the formation of an oxide film, for example, a wafer is cleaned in the cleaning chamber and then the amount of a natural oxide film remaining on the wafer or the like is measured by optical modulation reflectance spectroscopy in the optical measurement chamber. Thereafter, the wafer is oxidized in the rapid thermal processing chamber. As a result, the surface of the wafer is prevented from being oxidized on exposure to an atmosphere and the surface state of the wafer can be monitored in the course of a sequential process steps. By measuring the thickness of a film on a semiconductor region by optical evaluation in the clustered manufacturing device, the manufacturing process using the clustered device can be controlled.