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:
May. 31, 2016
Filed:
Nov. 30, 2012
Kobe Steel, Ltd., Hyogo, JP;
Kobelco Research Institute, Inc., Hyogo, JP;
Masato Kannaka, Kobe, JP;
Masakazu Kajita, Kobe, JP;
Eiji Takahashi, Kobe, JP;
Yuji Yamamoto, Kobe, JP;
Masaru Akamatsu, Kobe, JP;
Kunio Iba, Kobe, JP;
Kenji Imanishi, Kobe, JP;
KOBE STEEL, LTD., Hyogo, JP;
KOBELCO RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC., Hyogo, JP;
Abstract
A rotational misalignment between semiconductor wafers constituting a bonded wafer is calculated. A light source is arranged at a position which is on a front side of an opening of a notch and which is separated from an outer edge portion of a bonded wafer by a predetermined interval, and outputs light to irradiate the outer edge portion of the bonded wafer including the notch. A camera receives and photoelectrically converts reflected light that is specularly-reflected by the outer edge portion of the bonded wafer including the notch among the light outputted by the light source in order to output a brightness distribution of the reflected light as an image. A computer analyzes positions of notches from the image outputted by the camera to obtain a notch position misalignment, and further calculates a rotational misalignment between semiconductor wafers using a center position misalignment between the semiconductor wafers.