Method and apparatus for monitoring the thickness of a conductive coating
AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorJozef Brcka
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for determining thickness of a metallic layer being deposited on a collector. The method includes applying an electromagnetic field to a conductive layer on the collector. Then the temperature or the change in temperature of the collector is determined. The metal thickness is determined as a function of the temperature or change in temperature. The apparatus includes a collector, a thermocouple associated with the collector, and a source of an electromagnetic field.
Claims18
A method of monitoring the thickness of a generally conductive layer deposited on a collector, comprising:
- applying an electromagnetic field to the conductive layer;
- determining a temperature or a temperature change in the collector as a result of the electromagnetic field;
- and
- determining the thickness of the generally conductive layer deposited on the collector as a function of the temperature or the change in temperature,
- wherein the thickness determining includes comparing the temperature or the temperature change in the collector with a temperature or a change in temperature calculated from a thermal model using an estimated thickness and adjusting the estimated thickness until the calculated temperature or change in temperature approaches the temperature or change in temperature.
A method of monitoring the thickness of a generally conductive layer deposited on a collector, comprising:
- applying an electromagnetic field to the conductive layer;
- determining a temperature or a temperature change in the collector as a result of the electromagnetic field;
- and
- determining the thickness of the generally conductive layer deposited on the collector as a function of the temperature or the change in temperature,
- wherein the application of the electromagnetic field induces ohmic losses on the surface of the collector proportional to the thickness of the conductive layer deposited on the collector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.