Tactile surface inspection during device fabrication or...

Details Tactile surface inspection during device fabrication or... Tactile surface inspection during device fabrication or...

2011-08-02

2011-08-02

Smith, Matthew (Department: 2823)

Semiconductor device manufacturing: process

With measuring or testing

C438S018000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07989229

ABSTRACT:
Processes for inspecting a surface during device fabrication include contacting the surface with a tactile sensor. The tactile sensor is an electroluminescent tactile sensor array or a current electrode sensor array or a capacitive sensor array. The sensor is configured to convert local stress resulting from contact with the surface into light intensity and/or modulation in local current density. Both the light intensity and current density are linearly proportional to the local stress. The image stress provided by the sensor can then be captured by focusing the light intensity onto a suitable detector to provide a topographical image of the surface. Current density can alternatively be directly sensed via high resolution electrode array.

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