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. 22, 2018
Filed:
Jul. 13, 2017
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Leonard Tedeschi, San Jose, CA (US);
Lili Ji, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Olivier Joubert, Meylan, FR;
Dmitry Lubomirsky, Cupertino, CA (US);
Philip Allan Kraus, San Jose, CA (US);
Daniel T. McCormick, San Francisco, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Embodiments include devices and methods for detecting particles, monitoring etch or deposition rates, or controlling an operation of a wafer fabrication process. In an embodiment, one or more micro sensors are mounted on wafer processing equipment, and are capable of measuring material deposition and removal rates in real-time. The micro sensors are selectively exposed such that a sensing layer of a micro sensor is protected by a mask layer during active operation of another micro sensor, and the protective mask layer may be removed to expose the sensing layer when the other micro sensor reaches an end-of-life. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.