Apparatus and method for detecting impurities in wet chemicals
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsLindsey H. Hall, Jennifer Sees, Oliver Chyan
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Abstract
A apparatus and method for monitoring impurities in wet chemicals in semiconductor wafer processing comprising a silicon sensor (12) that is electrically connected to a potentiometer (22), a reference electrode (14) electrically connected to the potentiometer (22), wherein a comparison in the potential between the silicon sensor (12) and the reference electrode (14) to a predetermined baseline is used to measure wet chemical impurities, is disclosed.
Claims20
An apparatus for detecting impurities in wet chemicals used in semiconductor wafer processing comprising:
- a silicon sensor;
- a potentiometer electrically connected to said silicon sensor;
- and
- a reference electrode electrically connected to said potentiometer;
- wherein said silicon sensor comprises a silicon chip, a low resistivity coating disposed on said silicon chip, and a sample puck that holds said silicon chip and is in electrical contact with said low resistivity coating.
An apparatus for detecting impurities in wet chemicals used in semiconductor wafer processing comprising:
- a silicon chip having an electrically connective surface and an operative surface;
- a sample puck for holding said silicon chip, said sample puck electrically contacting said electrically connective surface of said silicon chip;
- a potentiometer electrically connected to said sample puck;
- a reference electrode electrically connected to said potentiometer;
- and
- a recording device connected to said potentiometer for detecting impurities in wet chemicals used in semiconductor wafer processing.
A process for detecting impurities in wet chemicals used for semiconductor wafer processing comprising the steps of:
- establishing a baseline measurement by comparing the output of a silicon sensor and a reference electrode in a reference solution;
- contacting said silicon sensor and said reference electrode with said wet chemicals to obtain a wet chemical measurement;
- comparing said wet chemical measurement with said baseline measurement;
- and
- determining the level of contamination in said wet chemicals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.