Method and apparatus for multifunction vacuum/nonvacuum annealing system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for simultaneously extracting multiple physical characteristics of materials, comprising:
- a housing;
a chamber disposed within said housing, said chamber being capable of achieving multiple temperatures, being capable of being filled with gases, and achieving a vacuum;
material characteristic sensors disposed within said housing for providing at least a first set of data and a second set of data; and
a data correlator coupled to said material characteristic sensors, said data correlator being capable of correlating said first set of data and second set of data.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus is disclosed for in situ characterizing and quantifying physical properties of thin film materials over time and in various environments. Through the utilization of multiple probes and sensors, and the processing of the data, a rapid and accurate forecast of the material'"'"'s behavior in a selected environment may be obtained. The present invention scans for a variety of properties, including film stress, film thickness, desorption, reflectivity, and resistivity. Photodetectors are used to collect reflected light which is processed by computer for analysis, while simultaneously processing data collected from the probes and sensors placed within and without the testing chamber. Data is collected and analyzed over time while sample materials are subjected to selected environments, including thermal cycling and gaseous or vacuum environments, using multiple probes according to the user'"'"'s industry needs.
26 Citations
22 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for simultaneously extracting multiple physical characteristics of materials, comprising:
-
a housing;
a chamber disposed within said housing, said chamber being capable of achieving multiple temperatures, being capable of being filled with gases, and achieving a vacuum;
material characteristic sensors disposed within said housing for providing at least a first set of data and a second set of data; and
a data correlator coupled to said material characteristic sensors, said data correlator being capable of correlating said first set of data and second set of data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A method for extracting and analyzing physical characteristics of materials, comprising the operations of:
-
providing a housing;
providing a chamber disposed within said housing, said chamber being capable of achieving multiple temperatures and a vacuum;
evacuating said chamber;
backfilling said chamber with a gas;
repeating the method until a desired degree of purity is achieved;
sensing a first set of physical properties of a sample material utilizing a first sensor disposed within said housing;
sensing a second set of physical properties of said sample material utilizing a second sensor disposed within said housing; and
correlating said first set of physical properties and said second set of physical properties, whereby material characteristics of said sample material are determined. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
directing a laser beam onto a surface of the sample material along a scan line;
detecting a surface reflection of an incident signal;
detecting magnetic fields emanating from the sample material during thermal processing; and
developing a data base for analysis and representation of selected characteristics of the sample material.
-
-
22. A method as recited in claim 19, further comprising the operation of conveying heat to said sample material utilizing a heat source;
-
providing a prechamber; and
evacuating said chamber and said prechamber.
-
Specification