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US 5,474,640 AGranted
Apparatus for marking a substrate using ionized gas
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsYan Ye, Anand Gupta, Yuri Uritsky
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus suitable for marking a substrate comprises a holder for holding a substrate and a ground for electrically grounding the substrate. At least one needle electrode has a tip located proximate to the substrate so that there is a gap between the substrate and the tip. A high voltage source provides a current to the electrode tip to ionize the gas in the gap so that the ionized gas can impinge upon and mark the substrate.
Claims15
An apparatus for marking a substrate, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) a holder for holding a substrate;
- (b) a ground for electrically grounding the substrate;
- (c ) at least one needle electrode having a tip located proximate to and spaced apart from the holder, so that when a substrate is held by the holder, the electrode tip and the substrate define a gap therebetween;
- and
- (d) a high voltage source for providing a current to the electrode tip for ionizing the gas in the gap so that the ionized gas can impinge upon and mark the substrate, substantially without depositing material on the substrate.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.