Etching method and apparatus
First Claim
1. An etching method comprising the step of focusing by a projecting optical system an optical image which is reflected from a region of a dicing stripe pattern on a substrate to-be-etched during selective etching, the step of converting the focused pattern into an image signal by an image detector, the step of finding a change of contrast in the region of the dicing stripe pattern on the basis of the image signal, and the step of deciding a state of etching on the basis of the found change of contrast.
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Abstract
The present invention consists in an etching method and apparatus wherein an optical image which is reflected from a region of a dicing stripe pattern on a substrate to-be-etched, such as a semiconductor wafer, is focused by a projecting optical system during selective etching. The focused pattern is converted into an image signal by an image detector, and a change of contrast in the region of the dicing stripe pattern is determined from the image signal. Based on this, an ending time for the etching can be decided from the change of contrast.
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14 Claims
- 1. An etching method comprising the step of focusing by a projecting optical system an optical image which is reflected from a region of a dicing stripe pattern on a substrate to-be-etched during selective etching, the step of converting the focused pattern into an image signal by an image detector, the step of finding a change of contrast in the region of the dicing stripe pattern on the basis of the image signal, and the step of deciding a state of etching on the basis of the found change of contrast.
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5. An etching apparatus comprising:
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(a) an etching processing chamber in which a substrate to be etched is received, (b) illumination means to illuminate said substrate to-be-etched, (c) a projecting optical system which focuses an optical image reflected from a region of a dicing stripe pattern on said substrate to-be-etched, (d) an image detector which converts the pattern focused by said projecting optical system, into an image signal, and (e) decision means to decide an etching state on the basis of the fact that a change of the image signal obtained from said image detector has exceeded a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14)
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Specification