Method and apparatus for measuring thickness of thin films

Optics: measuring and testing – By configuration comparison – With photosensitive film or plate

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

356369, G01B 1106, G01J 400

Patent

active

049990144

ABSTRACT:
An apparatus (20) for measuring the thickness of a thin film layer (32) on substrate (28) includes a probe beam of radiation (24) focused substantially normal to the surface of the sample using a high numerical aperture lens (30). The high numerical aperture lens (30) provides a large spread of angles of incidence of the rays within the incident focused beam. A detector (50) measures the intensity across the reflected probe beam as a function of the angle of incidence with respect to the surface of the substrate (28) of various rays within the focused incident probe beam. A processor (52) functions to derive the thickness of the thin film layer based on these angular dependent intensity measurements. This result is achieved by using the angular dependent intensity measurements to solve the layer thickness using variations of the Fresnel equations. The invention is particularly suitable for measuring thin films, such as oxide layers, on silicon semiconductor samples.

REFERENCES:
patent: 2587282 (1952-02-01), Blodgett
patent: 2897371 (1959-07-01), Hasler
patent: 2973686 (1961-03-01), Dreyfus et al.
patent: 3017512 (1962-01-01), Wolbert
patent: 3601492 (1971-08-01), Reichard
patent: 3708229 (1973-01-01), Pircher
patent: 3737237 (1973-06-01), Zurasky
patent: 3824017 (1974-07-01), Galyon
patent: 4293224 (1981-10-01), Gaston et al.
patent: 4308586 (1981-12-01), Coates
patent: 4355903 (1982-10-01), Sandercock
patent: 4358201 (1982-11-01), Makosch
patent: 4367044 (1983-01-01), Booth, Jr. et al.
patent: 4453828 (1984-06-01), Hershel et al.
patent: 4555767 (1985-11-01), Case et al.
patent: 4582431 (1986-04-01), Cole
patent: 4611919 (1986-09-01), Brooks, Jr. et al.
patent: 4618262 (1986-10-01), Maydan et al.
patent: 4645349 (1987-02-01), Tabata
patent: 4660979 (1987-04-01), Muething
patent: 4660980 (1987-04-01), Takabayashi et al.
patent: 4672196 (1987-06-01), Canino
patent: 4744660 (1988-05-01), Noguchi et al.
patent: 4815856 (1989-03-01), Bruce
patent: 4873430 (1989-10-01), Juliana et al.
Hauge, "Optical Film Thickness Measurement Tool", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 21, #2, Jul. 1978.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Method and apparatus for measuring thickness of thin films does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for measuring thickness of thin films, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for measuring thickness of thin films will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-446521

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.