Wafer bath imaging
AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorsJoel Estrella, Ihsan Simms, Michael Carcasi, Joshua Hooge, Hiroshi Marumoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An exemplary method of monitoring a bath process includes processing a first wafer by submerging the first wafer within a bath solution; capturing a video of the bath solution containing the first wafer during a first time interval; analyzing the video based on intensity of light captured in a frame of the video; and based on analyzing the video, determining a first metric of the bath solution during the first time interval.
Claims18
A method of monitoring a bath process, the method comprising:
- processing a first wafer by submerging the first wafer within a bath solution;
- capturing a video of the bath solution containing the first wafer during a first time interval, wherein the first wafer remains stationary in the bath solution;
- analyzing the video based on intensity of light captured in a frame of the video, wherein analyzing the video comprises dividing each frame of the video being analyzed into an array of pixels based on a sensor size of a camera capturing the video, and calculating a pixel intensity of light for each of the array of pixels;
- and
- based on analyzing the video, determining a first metric of the bath solution and a second metric of the bath solution during the first time interval, wherein determining the first metric of the bath solution during the first time interval comprises determining the first metric based on the pixel intensity of light for each of the array of pixels, the second metric being based on a directionality of the intensity of light captured in each frame of the video being analyzed.
A method of monitoring a bath process, the method comprising:
- processing a first wafer by submerging the first wafer within a bath solution;
- capturing a video of the bath solution containing the first wafer during a first time interval, wherein the first wafer remains stationary in the bath solution;
- analyzing the video based on intensity of light captured in a frame of the video, wherein analyzing the video comprises
- spatially dividing each frame of the video being analyzed into a plurality of zones, each zone of the plurality of zones comprising a contiguous group of physically adjacent pixels;
- and
- calculating a zonal intensity of light in each of the plurality of zones;
- and
- based on analyzing the video, determining a first metric of the bath solution during the first time interval, wherein determining the first metric of the bath solution during the first time interval comprises determining the first metric based on the zonal intensity of light in each of the plurality of zones.
A method of monitoring a bath process, the method comprising:
- processing a first wafer by submerging the first wafer within a bath solution;
- capturing a video of the bath solution containing the first wafer during a first time interval, wherein the first wafer remains stationary in the bath solution;
- analyzing the video based on intensity of light captured in a frame of the video, wherein analyzing the video comprises determining a background intensity of light captured for each frame being analyzed and subtracting the background intensity of light for the frame being analyzed from the intensity of light captured in the respective frame of the video being analyzed;
- and
- based on analyzing the video, determining a first metric of the bath solution during the first time interval.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.