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. 24, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 30, 2002
Niklas Bondestam, Helsinki, FI;
ASM International N.V., Bilthoven, NL;
Abstract
A method for monitoring the capability of a source container comprising liquid or solid source material to produce vaporized source material comprises extracting vaporized source material from the source container. The source container is then isolated and a property indicative of the partial pressure of the vaporized source material is then measured as a function of time. The partial pressure (or property indicative thereof) as a function of time is compared with a reference partial pressure as a function of time. An alarm is generated when the difference between the measured property (indicative of partial pressure) as a function of time and the reference property value as a function of time is larger than a predetermined property difference limit. The property can be, for example, overall pressure or source material concentration in the gas phase.