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:
Jul. 06, 2010
Filed:
Jul. 19, 2007
Pedro Vagos, Bend, OR (US);
Pedro Vagos, Bend, OR (US);
Nanometrics Incorporated, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Non-contact apparatus and methods for evaluating at least one of the DC (or RF) dielectric constant, the hardness, and Young's Modulus of a dielectric material on a microelectronic workpiece under process and for generating a correlation factor that relates a measured IR spectrum to at least one of the dielectric constant, the hardness, and Young's Modulus of the dielectric material. A specific example of a method comprises measuring a thickness of the dielectric material on the process workpiece, irradiating the process workpiece with an IR source, and collecting and measuring an IR spectrum from the process workpiece. The measured thickness and at least a portion of the measured IR spectrum from the process workpiece are used with the correlation factor to determine at least one of the dielectric constant, the hardness, and Young's Modulus of the dielectric material. The determined value from the correlation factor is then stored and/or displayed.