Apparatus and method of using impedance resonance sensor for thickness measurement
First Claim
1. An apparatus for measuring film thickness on an underlying body comprising at least one Impedance Resonance (IR) sensor comprising the following:
- at least one sensing head which is an open core or coreless (air core) inductor comprising at least one excitation coil and at least one sensing coil, wherein;
(i) said excitation coil is intended to propagate an energy to the sensing coil, which is intended to generate a probing electromagnetic field;
(ii) said at least one sensing coil is designed in such a way that intrinsic inductance L, capacitance C, and resistance R parameters of said sensing coil are capable of providing resonance conditions within predetermined frequency range for measuring impedance of wafer (or substrate) part falling within the scope of the sensor'"'"'s sensitive area; and
(iii) said at least one sensing coil is not connected to any capacitance means located externally to said at least one sensing coil such that said at least one sensing coil is capable of measuring one or more properties of said wafer (or substrate) part;
at least one power supply;
at least one RF sweep generator electrically connected to said excitation coil;
at least one data acquisition block with a high impedance input, greater than 10 MΩ
electrically connected to both the excitation coil and the sensing coil of the sensor;
at least one calculation block; and
at least one communication block.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for, and methods of use for, measuring film thickness on an underlying body are provided. The apparatus may include at least one Impedance Resonance (IR) sensor, which may include at least one sensing head. The at least one sensing head may include an inductor having at least one excitation coil and at least one sensing coil. The excitation coil may propagate energy to the sensing coil so that the sensing coil may generate a probing electromagnetic field. The apparatus may also include at least one power supply, at least one RF sweep generator electrically connected to the excitation coil; at least one data acquisition block electrically connected to the sensing coil; at least one calculation block; and at least one communication block. Methods of monitoring conductive, semiconductive or non-conductive film thickness, and various tools for Chemical Mechanical Polishing/Planarization (CMP), etching, deposition and stand-alone metrology are also provided.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. An apparatus for measuring film thickness on an underlying body comprising at least one Impedance Resonance (IR) sensor comprising the following:
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at least one sensing head which is an open core or coreless (air core) inductor comprising at least one excitation coil and at least one sensing coil, wherein;
(i) said excitation coil is intended to propagate an energy to the sensing coil, which is intended to generate a probing electromagnetic field;
(ii) said at least one sensing coil is designed in such a way that intrinsic inductance L, capacitance C, and resistance R parameters of said sensing coil are capable of providing resonance conditions within predetermined frequency range for measuring impedance of wafer (or substrate) part falling within the scope of the sensor'"'"'s sensitive area; and
(iii) said at least one sensing coil is not connected to any capacitance means located externally to said at least one sensing coil such that said at least one sensing coil is capable of measuring one or more properties of said wafer (or substrate) part;at least one power supply; at least one RF sweep generator electrically connected to said excitation coil; at least one data acquisition block with a high impedance input, greater than 10 MΩ
electrically connected to both the excitation coil and the sensing coil of the sensor;at least one calculation block; and at least one communication block. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of measuring conductive, semiconductive or non-conductive film thickness, comprising:
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providing an excitation coil of at least one Impedance Resonance (IR) sensor with alternating current from an RF sweep generator, wherein a range of frequency sweeping includes a resonant frequency of a sensing coil electromagnetically coupled with a wafer (or a substrate) part falling within the scope of the IR sensor'"'"'s sensitive area, the excitation coil, being electromagnetically coupled with the sensing coil, propagates an energy to the sensing coil and the sensing coil in turn emits a probing electromagnetic field, which penetrates the wafer (substrate) part falling within the scope of the IR sensor'"'"'s sensitive area, the sensing coil is not connected to any capacitance means located externally to the sensing coil such that the sensing coil is capable of measuring one or more properties of the wafer (or substrate) part; perceiving an influence on the probing electromagnetic field induced by the measured film by means of both the excitation coil and the sensing coil of the sensor; and transferring information about the influence to a calculation block by means of a data acquisition block for data processing. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification