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:
Nov. 13, 2012
Filed:
Jul. 18, 2008
Masaru Akamatsu, Kobe, JP;
Hidehisa Hashizume, Kobe, JP;
Yasuhide Nakai, Kobe, JP;
Kobelco Research Institute, Inc., Hyogo, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for measuring the end surface of a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer based on its projection image, without the influence of contaminants on the end surface. A rotation supporting mechanism supports a wafer between a first supporting position rotated by +δrelative to a predetermined reference position and a second supporting position rotated by −δdegrees at two or more supporting positions. An image sensor picks up a projection image of the wafer's end surface. An index value for the end surface is calculated for each of a plurality of obtained projection images. One representative value of the calculated index values or an aggregate value is obtained, and a shape measurement of the wafer's end surface corresponding to the reference supporting position is derived. When the wafer's radius and a chamfer width are set as r and k, δ≧cos((r-k)/r) is satisfied.