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:
Apr. 13, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 06, 2000
Reginald Hunter, Round Rock, TX (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention generally provides an apparatus and a method for inspecting a substrate in a processing system. More specifically, a method and apparatus providing embedded substrate monitoring through consolidation of multiple process inspection techniques in semiconductor processing equipment is disclosed. In one aspect, an optical inspection system comprising a light source and an optical receiving device, such as a CCD camera, is used to illuminate and inspect a substrate for various optical signatures. A plurality of optical inspection systems are strategically located in a cluster tool environment in order to collect optical information during processing steps. Taken together, the plurality of optical inspection systems operate as a monitoring system to determine substrate process conditions and routing.