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. 27, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 28, 2000
Mark C. Easton, South Burlington, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A flow monitoring system ( ) for and method of monitoring the flow of processing gases in a wafer processing system ( ) during the manufacturing of microelectronic devices. The wafer processing system includes a wafer processing chamber ( ) in fluid communication with a gas delivery system ( ) via a common conduit ( ). The gas delivery system includes a plurality of gas sources ( ) each having a flow regulator ( ) and a flow meter ( ). The flow monitoring system includes a total flow meter ( ) in fluid communication with the common conduit between the gas delivery system and the processing chamber. When a gas is flowed into wafer processing chamber from one of the gas sources, the comparator compares a first flow signal from the total flow meter to a second signal from the flow meter corresponding to the active gas source to determine whether or not the corresponding flow regulator is properly calibrated.