Method and apparatus for monitoring of a chemical characteristic of a process chemical
OwnerAshutosh Misra, Matthew L. Fisherinventors
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for performing online monitoring of a chemical state of a process material. A request to provide a process chemical to a processing tool is received. The process chemical is transported through a chemical transport unit, based upon the request, to the processing tool. An online monitoring of a chemical state of the process chemical is performed. The online monitoring of the process chemical includes analyzing a resultant of a radiation signal sent through the process chemical to determine a refractive index to determine whether the chemical state of the process chemical is within a predetermined level of tolerance.
Claims44
An apparatus, comprising:
- a radiation source for providing a radiation signal into a process chemical;
- a refraction index sensor for detecting a refraction index resulting from said radiation signal;
- and
- a controller to determine whether a chemical state of said process chemical is within a predetermined tolerance level in an online manner, in response to said refraction index.
A system, comprising:
- a process chemical unit to provide a process chemical for processing a semiconductor wafer;
- a processing tool to perform a process upon a semiconductor wafer using said process chemical;
- a process chemical transport conduit to transport said process chemical from said process chemical unit to said processing tool;
- and
- a chemical analysis unit to perform an online analysis of said process chemical in said process chemical transport conduit, said chemical analysis unit comprising a refraction index sensor for detecting a refraction index resulting from a radiation signal and a controller to determine whether a chemical state of said process chemical is within a predetermined tolerance level in an online manner, in response to said refraction index.
A method, comprising:
- receiving a request to provide a process chemical to a processing tool;
- transporting said process chemical through a chemical transport unit to said processing tool based upon said request;
- and
- performing an online monitoring of a chemical state of said process chemical, said online monitoring comprising analyzing a refractive index signal caused by the presence of a radiation signal sent through said process chemical to determine whether said chemical state of said process chemical is within a predetermined level of tolerance.
A computer readable program storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs a method, comprising:
- receiving a request to provide a process chemical to a processing tool;
- transporting said process chemical through a chemical transport unit to said processing tool based upon said request;
- and
- performing an online monitoring of a chemical state of said process chemical, said online monitoring comprising analyzing a refractive index signal caused by the presence of a radiation signal sent through said process chemical to determine whether said chemical state of said process chemical is within a predetermined level of tolerance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.