Monitoring substrate processing by detecting reflectively diffracted light
First Claim
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1. A substrate processing chamber comprising:
- a support to support a substrate;
a gas supply to provide a process gas in the chamber;
a gas energizer to energize the process gas to process the substrate;
a light beam source comprising one or more lenses adapted to focus and direct a light beam onto a portion of the substrate having a periodic pattern of features while processing the substrate, the light beam comprising multiple wavelengths that are selected so that the light beam is reflectively diffracted by the periodic pattern of features to generate a reflectively diffracted light beam having wavelengths with intensities that modulate if there is a change in the width of the features;
a light detector to detect the intensities of the multiple wavelengths of the reflectively diffracted light beam and generate a signal in relation to the detected intensities; and
a controller to receive and evaluate the signal to determine the occurrence of a change in the width of the features from any modulation in the signal.
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Abstract
A substrate is placed in a process zone and an energized process gas is maintained in the process zone to process the substrate. A light beam is reflectively diffracted from a pattern of features of the substrate being processed, the reflected beam is monitored, and a signal is generated in relation to the monitored beam. During processing, a width of the features of the substrate can change. The generated signal is evaluated to detect the occurrence of a change in the width of the features.
23 Citations
9 Claims
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1. A substrate processing chamber comprising:
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a support to support a substrate;
a gas supply to provide a process gas in the chamber;
a gas energizer to energize the process gas to process the substrate;
a light beam source comprising one or more lenses adapted to focus and direct a light beam onto a portion of the substrate having a periodic pattern of features while processing the substrate, the light beam comprising multiple wavelengths that are selected so that the light beam is reflectively diffracted by the periodic pattern of features to generate a reflectively diffracted light beam having wavelengths with intensities that modulate if there is a change in the width of the features;
a light detector to detect the intensities of the multiple wavelengths of the reflectively diffracted light beam and generate a signal in relation to the detected intensities; and
a controller to receive and evaluate the signal to determine the occurrence of a change in the width of the features from any modulation in the signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A substrate processing chamber comprising:
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a substrate support;
a gas supply to provide a process gas in the chamber;
a gas energizer to energize the process gas to process the substrate;
a light beam source comprising one or more lenses adapted to focus and direct a light beam onto a portion of the substrate having a pattern of features while processing the substrate, the light beam comprising multiple wavelengths that are selected so that the light beam is reflectively diffracted by the periodic pattern of features to generated a reflectively diffracted light beam having wavelengths with intensities that modulate in relation to a width of the features;
a light detector to detect the reflectively diffracted light beam and generate a signal in relation to the intensities of the multiple wavelengths of the reflectively diffracted light beam; and
a controller to receive the signal and evaluate the signal to determine the occurrence of a change in the width of the features from a change in the detected intensities of the multiple wavelengths of the reflectively diffracted light beam. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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Specification