Wafer processing method
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsYan-Hong LIU, Daniel M.Y. YANG, Che-Fu CHEN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method includes: transferring a wafer from a factory interface through a load lock chamber to a buffer chamber; transferring the wafer from the buffer chamber to a process chamber; etching the wafer in the process chamber, to remove a material of the wafer; and after the wafer is etched, performing reflectance measurements to the wafer in the factory interface, the load lock chamber, the buffer chamber, or combination thereof, to identify if the material of the wafer is removed entirely according to a reflectance of the wafer.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- transferring a wafer from a factory interface through a load lock chamber to a buffer chamber;
- transferring the wafer from the buffer chamber to a process chamber;
- etching the wafer in the process chamber, to remove a material of the wafer;
- and
- after the wafer is etched, performing reflectance measurements to the wafer in the factory interface, the load lock chamber, the buffer chamber, or combination thereof, to identify if the material of the wafer is removed entirely according to a reflectance of the wafer.
A method, comprising:
- collecting reflectance data of a wafer by a reflectometer;
- identifying, according to the reflectance data, whether an etching process of the wafer is performed completely;
- when the etching process is performed completely, performing a corresponding process after the etching process in a process flow to the wafer;
- and
- when the etching process is not performed completely, removing the wafer from the process flow.
A method, comprising:
- transferring a wafer through a first valve of a load lock chamber to the load lock chamber;
- before the first valve is opened, performing a ventilation process on the load lock chamber to protect a vacuum pump;
- and
- vacuuming, by the vacuum pump, the load lock chamber before the first valve is closed and after the wafer is transferred to the load lock chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.