Heated wafer carrier profiling

An apparatus comprising:

• a chemical vapor deposition chamber;
• a carrier rotatable about an axis of rotation, said carrier having a top surface adapted to hold at least one semiconductor wafer with a major surface of the wafer extending generally transverse to the axis of rotation, said carrier being maintained at a predetermined temperature within said chamber;
• a surface characterization tool adapted to measure a surface characteristic over a plurality of positions relative to the top surface of the carrier and/or the wafer while the carrier is disposed within the chemical vapor deposition chamber, the surface characterization tool further adapted to produce characterization signals over the plurality of positions, the characterization signals containing information about the top surface of the carrier and/or on at least a portion of said major surface of said wafer as the carrier rotates within the chamber;
• and
• a computer having a memory for storing a set of computer instructions, said computer coupled to the surface characterization tool for determining values for position-dependent parameters characterizing the top surface of the carrier based on the characterization signals.

A system for optimizing chemical vapor deposition comprising:

• a surface characterization tool adapted to measure a surface characteristic over a plurality of positions relative to a rotatable carrier having a top surface adapted to hold at least one semiconductor wafer, the surface characterization tool further adapted to produce characterization signals over the plurality of positions, the characterization signals containing information about the top surface of the carrier and/or the wafer as the carrier and/or wafer undergoes each process step of a chemical vapor deposition run;
• a first computer having a memory for storing a set of computer instructions, said computer in communication with the surface characterization tool for determining values for position-dependent parameters characterizing the top surface of the carrier based on the characterization signals obtained during each process step of a chemical vapor deposition run;
• and
• a chemical vapor deposition chamber comprising:
• a carrier rotatable about an axis of rotation, said carrier having a top surface adapted to hold at least one semiconductor wafer with a major surface of the wafer extending generally transverse to the axis of rotation;
• and
• a second computer having a memory for storing a set of computer instructions, including instructions for adjusting process conditions for each step of a chemical vapor deposition run, said second computer in communication with the first computer,
• wherein the first computer communicates the position-dependent parameters characterizing the top surface of the carrier and/or wafer based on the characterization signals obtained during each process step of the chemical vapor deposition run to the second computer, and the second computer adjusts each process step of the chemical vapor deposition run in the chamber based on the position-dependent parameters received from the first computer to improve yield.